Olavinlinna Castle 1 July 2023 - Romeo and Juliet | GoComGo.com

Romeo and Juliet

Olavinlinna Castle, Savonlinna, Finland
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Saturday 1 July 2023
7 PM
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Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Savonlinna, Finland
Starts at: 19:00
Intervals: 1
Duration: 3h 10min
Sung in: French
Titles in: Finnish,English

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Festival

Savonlinna Opera Festival 2023

An opera festival in the Finnish summer is an opportunity to enjoy not only high-quality opera performances but also wonderfully light July nights and Nordic nature. The small town of Savonlinna is full of life in July. The medieval Olavinlinna castle on the shore of the famous Lake Saimaa plays host to the festival, which can be reached from Helsinki by train and plane. Visiting artists at Savonlinna Opera Festival in summer 2023 include Lisette Oropesa, Frédéric Antoun, and conductor Sakari Oramo. In 2023 the Savonlinna Opera Festival will take place from 1 to 30 July 2023.

Overview

Romeo and Juliet is a romantic French opera full of powerful emotions and music awash with love. Award-winning director Amy Lane has set the events in late 19th century New York, in the dimly lit streets where the Capulets and Montagues fight over supremacy.

While Faust may be Gounod’s best-known work, Romeo and Juliet is his most cherished. It’s easy to see why. The music moves towards its climax duet by duet, developing the young lovers’ relationship towards its inevitable conclusion.

Award-winning director Amy Lane, the Artistic Director of the Copenhagen Opera Festival, has set the events in late 19th century New York, in the dimly lit streets where the Capulets and Montagues fight over supremacy. The constant sense of danger builds fascinating tension against the voluminous music.

Two couples alternate in the lead roles. The superstar Lisette Oropesa has Frédéric Antoun as her Romeo, and Marjukka Tepponen, who recently debuted at the Metropolitan Opera, sings with Antonio Poli. Nor does the brilliance end there – Lisette Oropesa also sings in a recital concert in Olavinlinna on 9 July. Read more here

The opera is a Malmö Opera production, which premiered in Sweden in November 2022.

History
Premiere of this production: 27 April 1867, Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet), Paris

Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet) is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet), Paris on 27 April 1867. This opera is notable for the series of four duets for the main characters and the waltz song "Je veux vivre" for the soprano.

Synopsis

The libretto follows the story of Shakespeare's play.

Act 1

Overture prologue:

A short chorus sets the scene of the rival families in Verona.

A masked ball in the Capulets’ palace

Tybalt talks to Pâris about Juliette, who appears with her father. Roméo, Mercutio, Benvolio and their friends enter, disguised, and Mercutio sings a ballad about Queen Mab, after which Juliette sings a joyful waltz song. The first meeting between Roméo and Juliette takes place, and they fall in love. But Tybalt re-appears and suspects that the hastily re-masked Roméo is his rival. While Tybalt wants immediate revenge, Capulet orders that the ball continue.

Act 2

The Capulets' garden

After Roméo's page Stephano has helped his master gain access, he reveals the two young lovers exchanging their vows of love.

Act 3

Press illustration of Act 3, scene 2, as staged in the original production
Scene 1: Laurent's cell

Roméo and Juliette, accompanied by Gertrude, go to the cell, and the wedding takes place. Laurent hopes that reconciliation between the houses of the Montagus and the Capulets may thus take place.

Scene 2: a street near Capulet's palace

Stephano sings to attract the occupants into the street. Gregoire and Stephano skirmish as men from each family appear. The duel is first between Tybalt and Mercutio, who falls dead, and then between Roméo, determined to avenge his comrade, and Tybalt. Tybalt is killed by Roméo, who is banished by the Duke.

Act 4

Juliet's room at dawn

Roméo and Juliette are together and, after a long duet, Roméo departs for exile. Juliette's father comes to remind her of Tybalt's dying wish for Juliette to marry Count Pâris. The friar gives Juliette a draught which will cause her to sleep, so as to appear as if dead and, after being laid in the family tomb, it is planned that Roméo will awaken her and take her away. 

Act 5

Juliet's tomb

Roméo breaks into the tomb after having taken poison because he believes that Juliette is dead. When she awakes from the friar’s potion, the lovers' last duet is heard before the poison takes effect on Roméo. As her bridegroom weakens Juliette stabs herself, to be united with her lover in death.

Venue Info

Olavinlinna Castle - Savonlinna
Location   Olavinkatu 27

During it’s history the Olavinlinna Castle has been the state border fortress for both Swedes and Russians. The construction work for Saint Olaf’s Castle started in 1475, when a Danish born knight Erik Akselinpoika Tott decided to build a great fortress to protect the strategically important Savo region. The castle was to ward off Russian’s attacks coming from the east and thus ensure that the Savo region will stay under the Swedish Crown. Olavinlinna Castle’s history is a mixture of swords clashing in the middle ages, cannons rumbleing and every day chores inside the castle’s walls.

In 1975 after great renovation works the Olavinlinna Castle re-opened it’s renovated spaces and nowadays Olavinlinna Castle is open for public all year around. The castle’s museom showcases materials that were either found from the castle or are somehow related to it’s history. The orthodox museum has icons and other religous articles both from Finland and Russia. Public events and guided tours to the castle are held in many languages, in summer and in winter. Castle’s multiple spaces are rentable and host many different kinds of events and celebrations. Olavinlinna Castle with it’s over 100 000 visitors a year is the main tourist attraction in Savonlinna.

The first Opera Festival was held in summer 1912. Attending a political meeting in Olavinlinna Castle in 1907, the Finnish soprano Aino Ackté, already famous at opera houses the world over and an ardent patriot, immediately spotted the potential of the medieval castle built in 1475 as the venue for an opera festival. The romantic castle set amid lake scenery of ‘supernatural beauty’ could not, in her opinion, fail to impress all who beheld it and was thus the perfect stage for the Finnish music just bursting into flower. Nowadays the auditorium is covered and has 2264 seats.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Savonlinna, Finland
Starts at: 19:00
Intervals: 1
Duration: 3h 10min
Sung in: French
Titles in: Finnish,English
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