Arizona Opera is taking “Roméo & Juliette” to 1960s Verona when it brings Gounod’s opera to Linda Ronstadt Music Hall this weekend.
So instead of straight hair, knee breeches and long-sleeve gowns drawn tight at the waist, the star-crossed young lovers will don bouffants and slicked back dos, jeans and leather jackets.
“It’s the telling of this story through a different time period lens,” said Director Patricia Racette, who is making her Arizona Opera directing debut.
Before you get visions of S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” or the 1970s Hollywood-by-way-of-Broadway musical “Grease,” Racette is quick to point out: It’s the same story of two young lovers trying to navigate their families’ histories of hate to find forever happiness that does not end well as originally conceived by William Shakespeare.
We’ll still hear Gounod’s wonderful score, under the baton of conductor Stephanie Rhodes Russell, but instead of stiff-armed ballroom dancing, the guests at the ball will slip in some more recognizable dance moves choreographed by Jennifer Seigle.
The ball guests will be dressed in black and white, resembling the celebrities attending Truman Capote’s iconic 1966 “Black and White Ball” that inspired Racette.
“The use of black and white is to symbolize the dysfunction and hatred, and color (added later) expresses the love,” she explained during a rehearsal break in Phoenix, where the show opened last weekend.
Ball guests are dressed in black and white, resembling the celebrities attending Truman Capote’s iconic 1966 “Black and White Ball.”
In the dramatic fight scenes, Tybalt and Mercutio attack one another with switchblades, which might recall a scene from Leonard Bernstein’s iconic “West Side Story,” another contemporary take on Shakespeare.
Taking “Roméo & Juliette” out of its late 19th century Verona setting is nothing new. Opera companies have been pushing that envelope for decades, as they should, said Racette.
“If we do not push the envelopes and find new ways to tell these stories, I fear for the art form’s future,” she said.
Racette is speaking from both sides of the stage when she talks about opera needing to reach new and younger audiences. She has spent more than 30 years singing, including appearing in Arizona Opera’s 2022 production of “A Little Night Music.” In 2018, she landed her first directing role with a new production of “La Traviata” at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she was recently named artistic director of the company’s Gerdine Young Artist and Richard Gaddes Festival Artist programs.
“What excites me about doing that is the ability to offer my skills and expertise through a different lens, to stay involved in an art form I spent my life honing,” she said. “It gives me a cross section of what this art form is and … to be able to experience it is wonderful.”
This is the first time Arizona Opera has staged Gounod’s tragic opera, based on Shakespeare’s equally tragic play, since the 2012-13 season. The piece makes its way into the company’s repertoire every 10 years or so, with the exception of the 15-year break between 1997 and 2012.
Performances, which run 2 hours and 56 minutes with a 30-minute intermission, are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10, at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $30-$125 through tickets.azopera.org.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, the opera will host Pride Night inside Music Hall, featuring a special pre-show reception, signature cocktails, raffles and a curated gallery show of selected works by local queer artists from Phoenix and Tucson. Admission is free for ticketholders.
