Scene of soprano Nadine Sierra and cast members in the revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at The Metropolitan Opera March 23. Courtesy/The Met
Soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Benjamin Bernheim star in the revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at The Metropolitan Opera March 23. Courtesy/The Met
OPERA News:
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette will be transmitted live as part of the 2023–24 Live in HD season at 12:55 p.m. ET, Saturday, March 23. 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 as “crystalline … [and] bright” (The Wall Street Journal), returns to the Met following her performances as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata last season.
This will be Bernheim’s Live in HD debut, following his critically acclaimed company debut last season as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto—when he was praised as “a lyric tenor who roars on top with genuinely thrilling, auditorium-filling sound” (The New York Times). Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducts 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.
Tony Award–winning director Bartlett Sher’s production of Roméo et Juliette was last seen live in HD in the 2016–17 season. 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.
The Stars of Roméo et Juliette
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Montreal, Canada
Nadine Sierra, Juliette; Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Samantha Hankey, Stéphano; Marshfield, Massachusetts
Benjamin Bernheim, Roméo; Paris, France
Frederick Ballentine, Tybalt; Norfolk, Virginia
Will Liverman, Mercutio; Chicago, Illinois
Alfred Walker, Frère Laurent; New Orleans, Louisiana
Press Quotes
“a glorious Benjamin Bernheim and Nadine Sierra in the title roles … Sierra and Bernheim were a dream … Sierra was luscious, lovely and free throughout her range … with a magnificent series of high notes that spun like liquid gold … Bernheim, every bit the poet-singer, put a succulent sound to elegant use, with transitions between vocal registers that had a buttery seamlessness.” —The New York Times CRITIC’S PICK
“The Metropolitan Opera scored another resounding success with a rapturous Roméo et Juliette starring the near-ideal pairing of Nadine Sierra and Benjamin Bernheim … [Bernheim’s] hypnotically besotted “Ah, Lève-toi, soleil” sung to Juliette’s window gave notice that his was no fleeting infatuation … [Sierra’s] voice, throbbing with resolve, effortlessly filled the huge opera house … the pair’s four duets served up such intimate enchantment that people will be talking about them for years.” —Observer
More Information
For further details on Roméo et Juliette, click here.
The 2023–24 Live in HD season continues with Puccini’s La Rondine (April 20) and Madama Butterfly (May 11). Both performances will be Saturday matinees transmitted live from the Met stage.
