Romeo and Juliet in Estonia Theatre in Tallinn, the 28th of September, 2019

Charles Gounod composed in the 19^th century several operas, out of which only two (Faust, Romeo and Juliet) are performed regularly all around the world. Romeo and Juliet is now shown in Estonia Theatre in Tallinn, so of course, I had to go and see it.

The play by Shakespeare on which the libretto is based is surely known to most people. The youngsters from two fighting families (the Capulets and the Montagues) fall in love and get married in secret. Juliet’s father, however, wants to force her to marry another man and to escape it she takes some poison that makes her appear dead for 24 hours. Juliet thinks that when everybody believes she is dead, she can run away with Romeo. Unfortunately, nobody tells Romeo about the plot, who – thinking that Juliet is dead – drinks a fatal dose of another poison. Juliet wakes up from her slumber, plans her escape with Romeo and when he falls down because of the poison, stabs herself to death. Once again it is proven that good communication is essential to survival.

Gounod’s music in Romeo and Juliet is entertaining. I did not feel it as revolutionary in any way, but nice to listen to. The relatively traditional direction was by Stephen Barlow. Set design, which was unusually abundant for Estonia Theatre, that has had a rather minimalistic set approach at least in the productions that I have seen there, was by Yannis Thavoris. He had also made the costume design, that was relatively simple and timeless. As a whole it was a good basic opera, that will attract crowds even though it was no once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Singer selection was a success and for once I can say that the main characters were credible in their roles. Romeo and Juliet are supposed to be teenagers and more often than not middle-aged lead singers are not very credible youngsters. This time, however, Perrine Madoeuf as Juliet and Nico Darmanin as Romeo were like created for these roles. Especially Nico Darmanin’s voice was a pleasant surprise, too: a warm and beautiful tenor voice.

So, if you are interested in a classic opera piece that will entertain you for a few hours, you can now travel to Tallinn.