ROMEO AND JULIET. LIVE BROADCAST OF AN OPERA BY CHARLES GOUNOD

Once again, the CGAC is taking part in Madrid’s Teatro Real Opera Week. On this occasion, it will host a live broadcast of Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare’s great classic Romeo and Juliet was so successful on stage that, when it was published in book form in 1597, the story was already widely known. Its impact was immediate and it soon found its way into music, becoming a work performed in numerous versions and formats.

In 1867, Charles Gounod adapted it as an opera with an iconic score that transforms Shakespeare’s drama into a highly intense musical spectacle, featuring some of the most moving love duets in the operatic repertoire.

Shakespeare’s play has a significant political dimension, which Gounod’s opera places in the background, as the composer is primarily interested in emotional tension, the inner world and the private lives of the two protagonists. In Romeo and Juliet, Charles Gounod combines intense lyricism, tenderness and delicacy with dramatic moments, fully demonstrating his mastery. Among its most celebrated pieces is Juliet’s waltz Je veux vivre (I Want to Live), full of energy and vitality, a perfect example of the melodic imagination and Romantic style of this great composer.

This production of Romeo and Juliet, co-produced by Teatro Real and the Paris Opera, invites audiences to rediscover one of the most powerful love stories of all time, transformed into a spectacular operatic experience.