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05/09/2017 03:47 PMOne of the most harrowing aspects of staging the work of a master like Shakespeare is living up to the genius of the work’s creator. When you set out to combine the vision of two venerated authors, the pressure doubles—but so does the chance reaching audiences.
On Saturday, May 20, the Opera Theater of Connecticut will perform Romeo and Juliet, in Music and In Verse at the Andrews Memorial Theater at Clinton Town Hall. In what Artistic Director Alan Mann called an “innovative production,” the performance will combine scenes from the opera by Charles Gounod, and the play by William Shakespeare.
The opera scenes will be sung in French, while the scenes from the play will be performed in English. Above the singers on the stage will be a screen with English translations for the opera scenes so the audience will follow along.
The Opera Theater of Connecticut has been staging productions for 32 years, but hasn’t performed a Shakespeare play in 20 years. Mann said he found the themes of the story, particularly the anger and emotions of young people, to be “very topical” for a modern audience.
“I’ve directed the play several times, but I wanted to do the opera,” Mann said,
To further connect to today’s audience, in addition to images of the city of Verona where the story takes place, a projection screen will feature background images of cities around the world that experience the kinds of violence that the play details.
Mann said the hardest part of creating the performance was “making sure both geniuses are represented and that the story flows.” To blend the two versions together, Mann went through both pieces and picked out the essential scenes to convey the plot, eliminating unnecessary scenes to condense the plot.
“We picked ones that involve the main characters,” Mann said.
Once the scenes were selected, Mann then had to decide whether the play or the opera was the better method to showcase the scene and the strike the right emotion. For example, Mann felt the death scene was better in the opera, but the fight scenes and intro were better in the play. Mann said he “stitched the scenes together in a very fluid story.”
Mann praised the Andrews Memorial Theater as a “great, great, great place” and a “beautiful building.”
Mann also praised the intimacy of the theater, and the fact that the stage has what’s called a thrust. A thrust is a portion of the stage that comes out into the audience, which allows for the action to occur in closer proximity to the people in seats.
Opera Theater of Connecticut will return to Andrews Memorial Theater from Aug. 8 to 13 with Madama Butterfly for the group’s established fans and those whose interest is piqued by this May production.
The Romeo and Juliet production will be accompanied by a piano and features a cast of five singers and six actors.
The production is two hours long and contains one intermission. Tickets are $30 general admission and $10 for student admission. The tickets can be ordered by calling 860-669-8999 or by visiting www.operatheaterofct.org.