French opera elevates Shakespeare to new level

Everyone knows the story behind William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Now take that story, have it sung in French, intensify the fight scenes and parties and add an orchestra to underline and heighten every emotion onstage. That, in a nutshell, is the opera "Roméo et Juliette," by Charles Gounod.\nThough many Shakespeare adaptations are known for twisting the plot lines, Gounod stayed loyal to the original play, said student John Sumners, who plays Romeo in the IU production.\n"Obviously (Gounod) needed to nip and tuck the play to adapt it to an opera, but it maintains all the crucial elements of the Shakespeare story," he said.\nThe opera most loyal to Shakespeare is probably Benjamin Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Sumners said, which will be performed at IU next month and uses the exact script in the original English.\nSumers also said the upcoming performance is important because it is part of a trend of increased public exposure to "Roméo et Juliette."\n"'Roméo et Juliette' has often been the red-headed stepchild of Gounod's repertoire, but in my opinion it's every bit as good as 'Faust' -- in fact, I think it's even better," he said.\nPerformer diploma student Carrie Reading called the opera a "higher form of drama."\n"This is not Shakespeare," she said. "Everything's on a grander scale with the opera. Not only does the voice set the emotion, but you have an entire orchestra to back up every mood. In the swordfights, for example, the motions are perfectly coordinated with the orchestral music."\nReading's role is unique because she plays a male character -- Romeo's page, Stephano -- who is about 10 years old.\n"The first thing I had to do was get rid of any female characteristics," Reading said. "I had to remove any graceful characteristic and study the movements of a little kid."\nReading said though this involved an increased level of energy, there were no vocal adjustments involved.\n"The words are rough and raunchy, but it's singing just like normal," she said.\nBoth Sumners and Reading agreed the efforts of guest stage director Michael Ehrman play a huge part in a successful stage performance.\n"Ehrman is brilliant," Sumners said. "He makes a completely traditional production interesting by supplying the details."\nReading commented on Ehrman's ability to make the acting interesting without interfering with the singing.\n"Ehrman knows how to sing and act," she said. "In operatic acting, the performance is much more affected by the singer's positioning, and Ehrmann knows how to make the stage action visually interesting while keeping it easy for us to sing."\nBoth performers also agreed the performances will captivate the IU audience.\n"In a truly good performance, you want to make the audience forget about everything outside the stage so much that when the curtain falls, there's a slight pause before the applause," Sumners said. "We can do this with the excellent quality of the staff putting (this production) together."\nReading saw two different qualities that she believes make the opera an attraction to audiences.\n"It's one of the most fun operas ever done -- there's a swordfight in the first 35 seconds, violence, death and implied nudity," Reading said. "Also, it shows the highest and lowest parts of existence together in one opera. That's why it's so beloved"