Bartlett Sher’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette returns to the Met stage for seven performances starting March 7, with an all-star cast of artists making their Met role debuts. Two singers at the height of their powers—radiant soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor sensation Benjamin Bernheim—take on the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragic romance for the first time at the Met. Sierra, with a voice described by The Wall Street Journal as “crystalline … [and] bright,” returns to the Met following her performances as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata last season. Bernheim made his critically acclaimed company debut last season as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto, which led The New York Times to say that he is “a lyric tenor who roars on top with genuinely thrilling, auditorium-filling sound.” The Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, takes the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores.
The production also features mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as Stéphano and baritone Will Liverman as Mercutio. Hankey sang the role of Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier last season, which The New York Times named one of the performances of the year. Liverman returns to the Met stage after starring as Malcolm in Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X earlier this season. Rounding out the principal cast are tenor Frederick Ballentine as Tybalt and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.
Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette has been performed 349 times at the Met since its company premiere on April 16, 1884. Sher’s production of Roméo et Juliette had its first Met performance on December 31, 2016. The creative team includes set designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber, lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, choreographer Chase Brock, and fight director B. H. Barry.
Fridays Under 40:
The Met’s Fridays Under 40 series continues on March 15 with a party ahead of the evening performance of Roméo et Juliette. Available exclusively for operagoers 40 and under, the event features complimentary wine, themed activities, and more. All Friday performances at the Met are available to Fridays Under 40 audiences at special discounted rates. For further details, please click here.
Roméo et Juliette Broadcasts on Radio and Online:
The matinee performance of Roméo et Juliette on Saturday, March 23, will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the globe as part of the Met’s Live in HD series.
The March 7 and 23 performances of Roméo et Juliette will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on the SiriusXM app. The March 23 performance will also be aired over The Robert K. Johnson Foundation–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, and audio from the March 7 performance will be streamed live on the Met’s website, metopera.org.
