Warfare in Verona: I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Berlioz loved the “élan and intensity” of the Act One finale of Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet opera. Wagner acknowledged the work’s influence on the second act of Tristan und Isolde. Both were referring to the Italian composer’s gift for writing long cantabile melody for two voices in unison, writes Andrew Clark in the FT.

Having just made a fine recording of the work, Elina Garanca and Anna Netrebko were faced with the challenge of translating that success to the Royal Opera's latest revival, and, as part of the process, reaching beyond the bounds of polished professionalism. Both are able to float a line and caress it without mannerism. Their voices blend well: there’s not a trace of rasping or edginess. Garanca cuts a credible figure as the young leader of the Montecchi and sings with admirable evenness and nobility; Netrebko is hardly the fragile, waif-like Juliet of one’s dreams but “Oh quante volte”, the opera’s best-known number, sounds appropriately pretty.

The problem is that neither sets the pulse racing in the way that, say, Sarah Connolly and Marie Arnet did for Opera North earlier this season. Maybe it was a case of first-night coolness. More likely, Garanca and Netrebko are two “star” singers who have yet to see beyond the beauty of Bellini’s lines to the temperament underpinning the notes. The result veers towards concert-in-costume. Netrebko’s performance is static and let down by poor Italian diction. Garanca goes through the motions of passion without making us believe it. Both find themselves suspended in an ornamental production (by Pier Luigi Pizzi) that offers no wider dramatic context or raison d’être other than as a platform to sing.

Mark Elder and the orchestra give secure, supple support. With less than impressive comprimario singing, it’s not enough to remove the smell of a performance that merely goes through the motions.