OPS (live stream), 07/06/2022

Berlioz : Roméo et Juliette

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

Cyrille Dubois, tenor

Christopher Maltman, bass-baritone

The Gulbenkian Choir

Choeurs de l'Opéra National du Rhin

Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg

John Nelson

This was what I call ending the season in style, with a rare complete performance of Berlioz's remarkable choral symphony, Roméo et Juliette.  American conductor John Nelson pursues his deep-dive into the works of Berlioz - following up on much praised performances and recordings of Les Troyens and La damnation de Faust - and still in collaboration with Joyce DiDonato and the Strasburg Philharmonic, is now adding Roméo et Juliette to his track record, with as much success as the other works, it would seem.

Berlioz began work on Roméo et Juliette in 1831, to complete its initial version in 1839, and it's another piece inspired by his overwhelming response to his discovery of Shakespeare, and the Irish actress Harriet Smithson.  If the encounter with the latter was ultimately less than felicitous, his engagement with Shakespeare produced multiple highly original, if characteristically idiosyncratic works.  Roméo et Juliette is perhaps best compared to Beethoven's Choral Symphony, itself a ground-breaking creation premiered as recently as 1824.  The most important point of Berlioz's treatment of this much-explored subject is perhaps that the central characters of the star-crossed lovers are represented solely by the orchestra, and the vocal parts are, more often than not, commentators rather than participants. Only the bass soloist is an actual character, Friar Lawrence.  Yet unlike the Symphonie fantastique, the shadow of Beethoven's actual musical style lies less heavily across this score, and it takes more of an effort to recall the 9th in relation to Roméo... than it does the Pastoral in relation to the Symphonie fantastique.  Nelson, at any rate was not playing the Beethoven card tonight, this was untrammelled Berlioz in all his splendour.

There were a couple of things that startled me from the outset.  The first was the chorus, because in the Prologue, with the chorus sitting at the rear of the platform, and mezzo and tenor soloists sitting directly in front of them, it was clear this was a very small group, maybe twenty singers in all, where I was sure Berlioz demanded much more substantial forces than that.  That particular question was answered after the interval, where the true massed forces of two choirs emerged occupying the flank sections of the front stalls.  Considering they were sitting behind the conductor, instead of in front of him, the coordination was impressive, but I was less happy with the clarity of diction, which had been very good in the first half, but now became rather muffled.  

The other thing was, in the first half, the presence of six harps, whittled down to four in the second half.  Without a score in front of me, and not knowing which version Nelson had chosen (because Berlioz revised the score fairly substantially after the premiere) I was nevertheless sure that the orchestra, while substantial, was not extravagantly so.  Four bassoons (instead of the usual two), and a raft of percussion, including an extra set of timpani, but otherwise fairly standard, and requiring only two harps.  The six seemed superfluous to requirements, and there was, in fact, only one moment when I think I really heard them.  As for the four in the second half, I was never aware of them at all.  It would seem that it's going to have to be one of those things that will need to be listened to more closely on the official recording - because there is certainly going to be one of those.

The performance as a whole, however, was a resounding success, with three outstanding soloists.  Joyce DiDonato in the Prologue radiated warmth and sincerity, with a rich, honeyed timbre.  Cyrille Dubois was thistledown light and mischievous in the Mab monologue, while Christopher Maltman presented an imposing figure as Friar Lawrence.  As Maltman gets older, I find his vibrato increasingly obtrusive, but he had it well under control, and he alternated authority with compassion to telling effect here.  Nelson and the Strasburg orchestra were superbly persuasive advocates of this richly varied score, and the resulting recording will surely be a fine addition to any collection.

[Next : 30th June]