The State Opera Prague
Conductor: Marco Guidarini
Stage director: Sláva Daubnerová
Set designer: Juraj Kuchárek
Costume designer: Martin Kotúček
Lighting designer: Daniel Tesař
Video: Lukáš Kodoň
Movement collaboration: Stanislava Vlčeková
Chorus master: Adolf Melichar
Dramaturgy: Jitka Slavíková
State Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Premiéres: April 21 and 23, 2016
Selected festivals: National Festival Smetana's Litomyšl 2016
In his youth, the French composer Charles Gounod (1818–1893) said that “one can only make a successful music career by composing operas”. Of the 13 operas he wrote, two went on to gain global recognition: Faust and Roméo et Juliette. Since its premiere at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 27 April 1867, Gounod’s setting of the immortal story of the Verona lovers has enjoyed ever-increasing popularity.
“Daubnerová, who showed imagination and flair in her staging of the Shostakovich double bill Orango and Antiformalist Rayok at the National Theater in 2014, brings the same combination of sound fundamentals and whimsical touches to classical fare. Her crowd scenes are superb, with the chorus neatly integrated into the action as couples or small groups seated at tables, checking in or strolling through the lobby, each apparently immersed in its own business. An occasional surrealist accent adds color and atmosphere – a ballet dancer perched in a storybook moon that descends during Mercutioʼs invocation of Queen Mab, interludes of female hotel staffers prancing across the stage en pointe.” Frank Kuznik, Bachtrack
