It’s in the Duets

New Jersey Opera sings ‘Romeo et Juliette.’

By: Stuart Duncan

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PHOTO/JEFF REEDER
From left: Scott Ramsay (Roméo), Matthew Curran (Frère Laurent) and Manon Strauss Evrard (Juliette) in New Jersey Opera’s Roméo et Juliette.)


   The Operagoer’s Guide defines Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette as "a love duet with occasional interruptions." Not far off the mark. The tale, so familiar to anyone who has finished English 101, has spawned wannabes right down to the present (West Side Story is only one).
   As the final major undertaking of what has to be recognized as an extraordinary 2007 summer season, New Jersey Opera is offering the work that premiered in 1867 at the Berlind Theater, McCarter Theatre Center, for three performances only. The love duets (and there are five of them) are most certainly there, but those interruptions are impressive too. They include, among others, the Capulet banquet scene, the balcony scene and the intervention of the concerned friar. But it also includes the important street scene where Tybalt starts a sword fight, kills Mercutio and, in turn, is slain by Romeo.
   Stage director Marc Verzatt gets plenty of help, both from choreographer Mary Pat Robertson and fight director Jeff A.R. Jones. Swords flash, daggers are unsheathed and the action covers the full stage. And the ensemble gets to show off costume designer Patricia Hibbert’s latest triumphs in the party scene — greens, browns and rusts, all tremendously appealing to contrast Juliette’s virginal white. The Friar, of course, wears olive and Romeo has an assortment of browns and whites.
   Matthew Curran distinguishes himself again as Frère Laurent. Nina Yoshida Nelsen, in the role Stephano, draws huge audience approval and lights up the stage. Matthew Edwards is an impressive Capulet. But the opera eventually lies in those duets. And here one might quibble a bit. Scott Ramsay, who sings Romeo, has a rich and warm tenor, but Manon Strauss Evrard has a flashy soprano, not always under control and sharply frigid at times. It sounds better in the duets, but the real crowd-pleasers are her arias and they sometimes lack coherence. Her acting, by contrast, is theatrical and very moving. It is as if winter and summer are asked to compromise.
Romeo et Juliette will be performed at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, July 28, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $52-$59; (609) 258-2787; www.njot.org