Romeo Et Juliette March 22, 2011

Angela Gheorghiu and Piotr Beczala play the doomed lovers in Gounod's supremely romantic opera. Placido Domingo conducts. Shakespeare's tragedy of the star-crossed lovers has inspired many operas, symphonic poems and ballets, as well as Bernstein's 'West Side Story'. Perhaps the most famous is Gounod's opera, first heard in Paris in 1867. It immediately became very popular - indeed, in the early years of the Met it often opened the season. The melodic score includes Juliet's waltz and Romeo's balcony aria (almost a direct translation of Shakespeare's "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?").