“When will you give us that Roméo et Juliette that seems made for you and that only you can give to the French stage?” An anonymous Belgian reviewer posed this question to Charles-François Gounod in an 1862 review of the composer’s opera La reine de Saba. The query touches on several artistic currents of the time: the Romantic era’s fascination with Shakespeare and resultant proliferation of translations of the Bard’s works across the European continent; the polished lyricism of Gounod’s music; and the institutionalized spectacle of nineteenth-century French opera.

The answer was not long in coming. Gounod first mentioned the possibility of an operatic setting of Roméo et Juliette in a letter written in 1864. Librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, with whom Gounod had already collaborated on several operas including Faust and Mireille, completed a libretto adaptation in early 1865, and Gounod began his first compositional sketches shortly thereafter. Roméo et Juliette premiered in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique in the midst of the 1867 Exposition Universelle, and it proved an instant success.

Unlike many other operatic adaptations of Shakespeare, Roméo et Juliette remains comparatively faithful to the original tragedy. Although numerous French translations were in print in the 1860s, none seems clearly to be a source for Barbier and Carré’s libretto, suggesting that they worked directly from Shakespeare. The play certainly contains plenty of elements that lend themselves to operatic presentation, such as Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech, the lovers’ dialogues both at their first meeting and later in the dawn scene, the comedic figure of the nurse, the masque in Act I, and the street scene between the opposing families. Even Shakespeare’s prologue appears in the opera, allowing the chorus to summarize the story to come.

Nevertheless, any adaptation must deviate in some way from the original, and Gounod’s opera is no exception. Here, the relationship between Roméo and Juliette subsumes the surrounding plot elements. While Shakespeare never actually shows the couple’s wedding ceremony, the opera gives it its own scene, adding a plea for salvation at the end of the lovers’ wedding vows—an emphasis on spirituality, pure love, and Catholic salvation also evident in Gounod’s Mireille and Faust. Juliette’s potion-induced collapse occurs not in private, but during her wedding to Paris, which allowed Gounod to include a nuptial cortège with an eight-piece onstage band and a choeur dansé (this spectacle takes up most of the scene, with Juliette’s swoon following in a manner both abrupt and abbreviated). Finally, the character of Roméo’s page Stéphano, a soprano trouser role, was added to the cast.

Gounod’s music in Roméo et Juliette ranks as one of the high points of his career. Coming off of several operatic failures, the composer adhered to known strengths that had served him well in Faust, which proved both pragmatic and effective. Focusing on Roméo and Juliette’s romance, Gounod crafted four exquisite tenor-soprano duets for them, more than in any of his other operas and an unusual amount for French and Italian operas of the time. Juliette’s valse-ariette “Je veux vivre” in Act I is a vivacious coloratura number, while Roméo’s Act II cavatine, “Ah! lève-toi soleil!” evokes both his ardor and the evening star through a chromatic descent in the accompaniment. Gounod prefaces the opening duet of Act IV with a sensuous prelude theme for cellos divided into four parts that almost explicitly conveys the events of the couple’s wedding night—a scoring later borrowed (perhaps in tribute) by Verdi for the Act I duet of Otello. The musical highlights are not limited to the lovers, however; Mercutio’s ballade “Mab, reine des mensonges” in Act I displays colorful orchestration with delicate details, while Frère Laurent’s Act III cavatine, “Berceau de tous les êtres” brings a calm centeredness before the rush of events following the secret wedding.

Roméo et Juliette found a greater degree of initial success than any of Gounod’s other operas. Within a year of its premiere, it had opened in England and throughout Germany and Belgium. After the Exposition Universelle ended, the Paris production moved to the Opéra-Comique from 1873 to 1887, becoming the first opera with sung rather than spoken dialogue performed at that venue. It has remained in the operatic repertoire since its inception, though it now often ranks second to Faust among performances of Gounod’s operas. Ultimately, the merit of Roméo et Juliette—and its success—lies both in Gounod’s finely-wrought duets and set pieces and in the opera’s fidelity to Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers.

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