DIANA DAMRAU AND VITTORIO GRIGOLO SIZZLE IN ‘ROMÉO ET JULIETTE’ AT THE MET

By ANTHONY TOMMASINIJAN.

Vittorio Grigolo and Diana Damrau in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” at the Metropolitan Opera. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

During a recent interview, the German soprano Diana Damrau and the Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo tried to describe the chemistry they have together onstage. Reading their comments, I worried that they might be overthinking things. After all, they first worked together only last year, appearing as the lovers in Massenet’s “Manon” at the Metropolitan Opera. The couple thrilled audiences and critics with the smoldering intensity they emitted. So this is a new relationship. In talking about their instinctive connection might they risk making it self-conscious?

Not to fear. On Saturday night for its New Year’s Eve gala, the Met introduced a new production of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” starring Mr. Grigolo and Ms. Damrau as Shakespeare’s star-crossed adolescent lovers. In scene after scene, these exciting and charismatic artists disappeared into their characters, emboldening each other to sing with white-hot sensuality and impassioned lyricism.

The production, by the director Bartlett Sher, his seventh for the Met, updates the setting from Renaissance to 18th-century Verona, presenting an essentially traditional staging with some surreal touches that seem a little forced. Still, to whatever degree Mr. Sher shaped the courageous performances of his stars, and this very strong cast, he deserves much credit.

 Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo sing the Act IV duet "Nuit d’hyménée" from Gounod's opera, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera on New Year's Eve. By THE METROPOLITAN OPERA on Publish Date January 1, 2017. . Watch in Times Video »

Chemistry between two performers depends on each one bringing exceptional talents to the mix. Mr. Grigolo, with his heartthrob looks and explosive temperament, makes an ideal Roméo. During intense outbursts, his virile voice had burnished power and ping. Yet in moments when Roméo feels transported by his sudden love for this winsome girl, as in the aria he performs beneath Juliette’s bedroom window, Mr. Grigolo sang subdued romantic phrases with dark colorings and an emotional vulnerability that seemed to knock this impulsive Roméo off guard. That Mr. Grigolo could also climb up the wall to Juliette’s balcony with such effortless athleticism jolted the character with teenage energy.

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Ms. Damrau showed impressive range in her solo turns. At one point during the Capulet ball in Act I, after Juliette is introduced to Pâris, the young count her father wishes her to wed, she sings the light, waltzing “Je veux vivre” to a group of ogling young courtiers, explaining that she is too young and full of life to settle down. Ms. Damrau dispatched the aria with rosy sound, agile coloratura and girlish glee. But in Act IV, when the good-intentioned friar gives Juliette a potion that will make her appear dead to her family until Roméo can rescue her, Ms. Damrau summoned weighty vocal power and tragic intensity as she agonized over what to do, then forced herself to drink.

Ms. Damrau and Mr. Grigolo were especially inspired during the four duets that form the dramatic crux of Gounod’s opera. During the balcony scene duet (“O nuit divine”), they shifted subtly between passages of tremulous romantic abandon and affecting melodic intimacy.

Though this is Gounod’s finest opera, a more sophisticated score than “Faust,” the music can still seem a little precious and cloying, even during the crucial love duet on the couple’s only night of wedded bliss. But Ms. Damrau and Mr. Grigolo infused it with a winning combination of emotional nakedness and vocal refinement that brought out the subtleties and depths of the music. Their efforts were aided all night by the nuanced, richly textured and vibrant conducting of the always impressive Gianandrea Noseda.

The Met production by the director Bartlett Sher updates the setting from Renaissance to 18th-century Verona, where an enormous white sheet serves as an all-purpose symbol. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Mr. Sher must have been a little emotionally torn on this occasion. The same day his “Roméo et Juliette” opened at the Met, his revelatory production of “Fiddler on the Roof” had its final performance on Broadway.

The “Roméo,” a production of La Scala in Milan, was initially presented at the Salzburg Festival in 2008. It’s not Mr. Sher’s best work. The stage is dominated by a single set (designed by Michael Yeargan) to suggest the imposing, three-tiered outer walls of a Veronese palazzo. During the prologue, after the teeming orchestra depicts the longstanding animosities between the Capulet and Montague families, an assembled throng (the great Met choristers) sings the grave chorus summarizing the tragedy about to occur. Mr. Sher opts for the obvious: The choristers sit and stand with faces forward, stern and motionless, as they intone the music.

From then on, slightly abstract, sometimes surreal touches are added to this realistic backdrop. The Capulets’ masked ball becomes a madcap affair. Attendees appear in costumes (by Catherine Zuber) with garish colors and extravagant headpieces. An enormous white sheet serves as an all-purpose symbol, first unfurled as a canopy over a crowd scene, then turned into a covering atop a platform to suggest the bed the secretly married lovers share, then becoming the suffocating bridal veil Juliette must wear to her forced marriage with Pâris, which never takes place.

The minimal use of props allows for fluid scene changes, and the symbolic white sheet creates some dramatic stage images. Still, it might have been better to push the concept more toward the abstract. Those looming walls in the background dominate everything. And the set winds up looking like something old fashioned, both monumental and a little dusty.

Ms. Damrau, center, showed impressive range in her solo turns. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The crowd scenes are inventively handled, however, especially the street brawl in front when Tybalt (Diego Silva, an appealing young tenor in his Met debut) gets into a sword fight with Roméo’s hotheaded friend Mercutio (the dynamic baritone Elliot Madore), and Roméo intervenes. The encounters were executed with Errol Flynn flair, thanks to the work of the fight director B. H. Barry.

The acting of the entire cast complemented the consistently strong singing. The bass-baritone Laurent Naouri combined sure French style with an appropriate touch of stuffiness as Capulet, a family head mired in pointless grudges against the Montague clan. The formidable bass Mikhail Petrenko conveyed the hearty good will of Frère Laurent, the friar who also subscribes to dangerous potions. The mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez brought youthful sass and a bright voice to the male role of Stéphano, Roméo’s page, who is like a sidekick. Diana Montague as Gertrude, the nurse to Juliette, and David Crawford as Pâris were other standouts.

But the evening belonged to Ms. Damrau and Mr. Grigolo, who during the long ovation at the end joined their strong voices to shout out “Happy New Year” to the audience. They remain in the cast only through this month.

What lies ahead for them at the Met? I’m sure Peter Gelb is already on the case.

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