Classical CD of the week: Romeo et Juliette, by Charles Gounod
May 9, 1998

by Alan Blyth

The husband-and-wife team of Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna make ideal casting as the eponymous heroine and hero of Gounod's romantic masterpiece, often - and rightly - regarded as one, long, uninterrupted love duet. Gheorghiu develops Juliet from the ingenuous adolescent of the beginning into the fated woman of the close, singing in warm, plangent tones throughout, bringing out all the soulfulness of her taxing music.

As when he sang the part at Covent Garden three years ago, (when the work was recorded on video) Alagna makes a properly ardent, desperate Romeo and fills his music with silvery tone. Not unnaturally, their voices entwine perfectly in the sensual duets.

EMI as sensibly put the pair in an authentically French setting. All the other members of the cast, save Simon Keenlyside as a vital Mercutio, are Francophones, with José van Dam standing out as a sympathetic, authoritative Friar Lawrence.

Michel Plasson, ever the expert interpreter of French opera, gives a reading that nicely blends fire with sentiment, idiomatically supported by his chorus and orchestra of the Capitole, Toulouse. He holds together the long piece (here given absolutely complete, necessitating three CDs) effortlessly. Add excellent recorded sound and you have an outright recommendation.