Romeo and Juliet - Amazon Web Services

Contents
2 WELCOME
3 PREPARING FOR THE PERFORMANCE
4 SYNOPSIS OF THE OPERA
6 A LOVE STORY FOR THE AGES
8 JULIET’S BALCONY:
2015/16
AN ENDURING ADAPTATION
9 HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL TIMELINE
Romeo and Juliet
By Charles Gounod
14
REFLECTING ON THE PERFORMANCE
Online Resources
MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS
COMPOSER AND LIBRETTIST BIOGRAPHIES
OPERA TERMINOLOGY
PERFORMANCE ETIQUETTE
Lyric Unlimited is Lyric Opera of Chicago’s department dedicated to
education, community engagement, and new artistic initiatives.
Major support provided by the Nancy W. Knowles Student and
Family Performances Fund. Performances for Students are supported
by an Anonymous Donor, Baird, the John W. and Rosemary K. Brown
Family Foundation, Bulley & Andrews LLC, The Jacob and Rosalie
Cohn Foundation, the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation, the General
Mills Foundation, John Hart and Carol Prins, the Dr. Scholl Foundation,
the Segal Family Foundation, the Bill and Orli Staley Foundation,
the Donna Van Eekeren Foundation, Mrs. Roy I. Warshawsky, and
Michael Welsh and Linda Brummer.
Lyric Unlimited was launched with major catalyst funding from The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and receives major support from the
Hurvis Family Foundation.
Written by: Jesse Gram, Cate Mascari, Maia Morgan, Roger Pines,
and Todd Snead
Photo: Clärchen Baus-Mattar & Matthias Baus, Salzburg Festival
Lyric Opera of Chicago is a participating institution
Lyric Opera presentation of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet generously made possible by the NIB Foundation, Julie and Roger Baskes, Mr. and Mrs. W. James
in Shakespeare 400 Chicago, a yearlong international
Farrell, and PowerShares QQQ. Production owned by The Metropolitan Opera.
arts festival celebrating the vibrancy, relevance, and
reach of Shakespeare.
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BEHIND THE SCENES AT LYRIC
Romeo and Juliet
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
Dear Educator,
Welcome to the latest edition of Lyric
Unlimited’s Backstage Pass! This is your ticket
to the world of opera and your insider’s
guide to Lyric’s production of Gounod’s
Romeo and Juliet. Thank you for joining us
and for sharing this experience with your
students.
We have designed Backstage Pass! to
prepare young people with the essential
information needed to understand the
opera and enjoy the performance. These
resources are designed to enhance your
curriculum and can, ideally, be seamlessly
incorporated into your regular, daily learning
objectives.
CONTENTS
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>
Please review the materials in this guide and
online, and consider how they can be used
in your classroom. We recommend setting
aside small blocks of time over several days
or weeks before and after the performance
to share this content with your students. The
more students know about the opera, the
more they will enjoy the experience.
It is our sincere hope you enjoy the
performance, and we look forward to seeing
you and your students at the opera!
2
Photo: Clärchen Baus-Mattar & Matthias Baus, Salzburg Festival
Preparing for the Performance
These activities are designed to help you quickly and easily develop effective lesson plans built around clear
objectives. Objectives are written in “I Can” statements using student-friendly language, and all activities can be used to address state and national
learning standards.
Objectives:
•
I can tell the story of the opera I am about to see.
•
I can recognize major musical themes from the opera.
•
I can use the essential vocabulary associated with the production of modern opera.
CONTENTS
I can tell the story of the opera I am about to see.
I can recognize major musical themes from the opera.
•
Refer to the “Synopsis of the Opera” section of this guide.
•
Refer to the “Musical Highlights” section of the online teacher resources.
•
Ask students to read the synopsis, then discuss the time period, setting,
characters, and story of the opera with the class.
•
•
Have students write narrative predictions or create artwork reflecting
what they think the set and costumes will look like.
Play the musical examples in class and use the commentaries provided
online to familiarize your students with the music, its significance, and its
context within the opera.
•
Ask students to wear headbands with the names of the characters
in the opera. Next, provide brief descriptions of each character and
encourage students to determine how their character should stand,
speak, and behave. Read the synopsis aloud while students act out the
story.
Play these selections many times over multiple classes so students
become familiar with the music.
I can use the essential vocabulary associated with the
production of modern opera.
•
•
Working in small groups, have students choose celebrities they would
cast in each role if they were making a modern movie of the opera.
Encourage groups to present their choices to the class and make an
argument for why each celebrity would be a good fit.
3
•
Refer to the “Opera Terminology” section of the online teacher
resources.
•
Encourage students to research and define these terms, then compose
sentences using them appropriately.
•
Give each student a card with either a term or a definition. Have
students find the partner who matches their card.
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Photo: Jenn Gaudreau
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Activities:
A Synopsis of the Opera
ACT I
The grand hall of the Capulets
(ro-MAY-oh ay jewl-YETT)
The Capulets are holding a ball celebrating the coming of age of their
daughter, Juliet. Tybalt and Pâris admire the feast and anticipate the
entrance of Juliet, to whom Pâris will be engaged.
Opera in five acts in French
by Charles-François Gounod (sharl frahn-SWAH goo-NOH)
Libretto by Jules Barbier (djewel bar-BYAY) and Michel Carré (mee-SHELL cah-RAY)
after Shakespeare
In masks, Romeo, Mercutio, and their friends, all from the rival Montague
faction, enter the palace. Romeo had a premonition in a dream and thinks
they should not have come. Mercutio mocks him with the story of Queen
Mab, who rules over dreams (Mab, la reine des mensonges). Romeo’s mood
changes the moment he sees Juliet in the distance—he falls in love with her
at first sight.
THE CHARACTERS
(in order of vocal appearance)
Meanwhile, Juliet laughs away her maid Gertrude’s praise of Pâris as a
future husband. Juliet wants nothing to do with marriage; instead she wants
to enjoy the springtime of her youth (Je veux vivre). When Gertrude steps
away, Romeo approaches Juliet for their first exchange, and the chemistry is
palpable (Ange adorable).
Tybalt (tee-BAHLT), Nephew of Lord Capulet............................................ Tenor
Pâris, A young count................................................................................ Baritone
Lord Capulet .................................................................................................... Bass
Juliet, Daughter of Capulet .................................................................... Soprano
Mercutio (mayr-KEW-see-oh), Friend of Romeo .................................. Baritone
Romeo, A Montague .................................................................................... Tenor
But Tybalt soon appears and recognizes Romeo as a hated Montague. The
new couple part, desolate over the realization that their love can never be.
Gertrude (jair-TREW-duh), Juliet’s nurse .................................... Mezzo-soprano
Grégorio, A servant of the Capulets ...................................................... Baritone
ACT II
The Capulet garden under Juliet’s balcony
Friar Laurence .................................................................................................. Bass
Stéphano, Romeo’s page ....................................................................... Soprano
Assisted by his page Stéphano, Romeo scales the garden wall and stands
beneath Juliet’s window. Seeing a light inside, Romeo pours out his heart
(Ah, léve-toi-, soleil!). Juliet steps onto the balcony and the two exchange
ecstatic vows of love (Ô nuit divine!).
Benvolio, Nephew of Capulet ..................................................................... Tenor
The Duke of Verona ........................................................................................ Bass
Chorus of retainers and relatives of the Capulet and Montague families; ball
and wedding guests
ACT III
SETTING
Scene 1: Friar Laurence’s cell.
Romeo comes to talk to Friar Laurence about Juliet. Accompanied by
Gertrude, Juliet suddenly appears as well. Bidding Gertrude to keep watch
outside, Friar Laurence agrees to marry the young lovers, hoping the union
with end the feud between their two families.
Verona, Italy; 14th century
PROLOGUE
The chorus tells the tale of the two lovers from rival families (Vérone vit jadis
deux familles rivales).
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CONTENTS
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Premiered April 27, 1867, Théâtre Lyrique, Paris
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Roméo et Juliette
A Synopsis of the Opera
Romeo and Juliet kneel as Friar Laurence asks God to look favorably upon
the pair (Dieu qui fit l’homme à ton image!). There is only a brief moment of
celebration before Juliet leaves with Gertrude and Romeo leaves with Friar
Laurence (Ô pur bonheur!).
After Romeo’s departure, Juliet learns that her father has arranged for her
to marry Pâris immediately. She pleads to Friar Laurence, who offers her a
potion that will make her appear to have died. He will have Romeo waiting
by her side when she wakes, and the two can flee together.
Scene 2: In front of the Capulet palace.
While looking for Romeo, Stéphano taunts the Capulet servants with a song
(Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle).
Alone with the flask, Juliet contemplates her situation, then conceals a
dagger in case the potion fails (Amour ranime mon courage). Finding
strength in her love for Romeo, she drinks.
Gregorio hears and comes with other servants to punish the offender
(Ah! ah! voici nos gens!). Stéphano draws his sword and Gregorio takes
up his challenge. Mercutio and Benvolio appear, and Mercutio draws
his sword to stop the fight. Tybalt and Pâris arrive with some friends, and
the insults increase. Mercutio and Tybalt are about to fight when Romeo
appears and steps between them, ordering them to stop. Tybalt, vowing
vengeance for Romeo’s intrusion into the Capulet ball, challenges him to
a duel. Romeo starts to draw and then stops, telling Tybalt that the time for
hatred is over.
Scene 2: The Capulet chapel.
The wedding begins according to plan, and all present (except Juliet,
Gertrude, and Friar Laurence) rejoice the coming union (Frappez l’air,
chants joyeux). But when Pâris tries to put the ring on Juliet’s finger, she
collapses. Believing her dead, the stunned bystanders cry out to God.
CONTENTS
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ACT V
The Capulet crypt
Friar Laurence learns that the letter outlining his plan to Romeo was never
delivered.
Unable to understand Romeo’s refusal to fight, Mercutio draws, vowing to
avenge Tybalt’s insults. Mercutio is fatally wounded, and in a rage, Romeo
draws on Tybalt after all, dealing him a mortal blow.
Believing Juliet to be dead, Romeo makes his way into the Capulet crypt,
and after finding her lifeless body, he drinks poison(A toi, ma Juliette!). The
next moment Juliet begins to awaken. Romeo is overjoyed, but the poison
quickly takes effect, and he despairingly admits he is dying (Console-toi,
pauvreâme) Finding Romeo’s poison flask empty, Juliet stabs herself with
her dagger. Begging forgiveness from God, the lovers die in each other’s
arms (Seigneur, Seigneur, pardonnez-nous!).
Fanfares announce the arrival of the Duke. As Capulets and Montagues all
cry for justice, the Duke rages against the blood spilled by their feud and
orders banishment for Romeo. Both families mourn the evil day, though the
Capulets still vow to avenge their honor.
ACT IV
Scene 1: Juliet’s room.
Romeo and Juliet have spent their wedding night together secretly in her
chamber. The necessity of their parting at dawn is unbearable, and they
deny it as long as they can. Recalling the night, they pledge their souls to
each other forever (Va! Je t’ai pardonné...Nuit d’hyménée).
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Photo: Hermann, Clärchen & Matthias Baus, Salzburg Festival
A Love Story for the Ages
In 1662, diarist Samuel Pepys wrote of William
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “it is a play of itself the worst
of its major characters. They also created a new character: Stéphano,
Romeo’s page. Like the play, the opera is set in 14th-century Verona, and
it begins with a prologue, in which the chorus foreshadows the tragedy
about to unfold. One significant change Carré and Barbier made was an
adjustment to Shakespeare’s ending. In the play, when Juliet awakens in
the tomb, Romeo is already dead. When she wakes in the opera, Romeo still
has breath enough for a final duet before they expire together in a classic
operatic death scene.
Why this enduring popularity? Four hundred years after its first performance,
Romeo and Juliet has continued to resonate. But while each adaptor takes
Shakespeare’s play as their starting point, some aim to adhere religiously
to the original, while others make radical changes to heighten particular
themes or to comment on the world as they see it. So what’s Romeo and
Juliet about? Even those unfamiliar with the details of the story know it’s a
tale of young love and tragic death. Of course, there’s more to it than that.
Is Romeo and Juliet a story of love at first sight? The destruction of that love
by hatred and prejudice? Adolescent rebellion against authority? Or an
examination of fate versus free will? Over the years, artists have highlighted
all of these themes and more.
In Act One, Scene Two of the play, Juliet’s father says to Pâris, “she hath not
seen the change of fourteen years” in other words, Juliet is only thirteen!
Shakespeare never says how old Romeo is, but he’s likely a few years older—
perhaps late teens or early twenties. Although past adaptations had cast
older actors in the roles, director Franco Zefferelli used teens in his 1968 film
adaptation. The story of love-struck teenagers flouting the authority of their
antagonistic parents resonated with a generation rebelling against the
Vietnam War. Given that Romeo and Juliet are teens themselves, it’s no
surprise a number of young adult novels have been based on their fictional
romance. Walter Dean Myers’ 2007 Street Love re-imagines the pair as
Harlem teens Damien and Junice. In a nod to Shakespeare, the novel is
written in verse.
Shakespeare’s play draws heavily on a 1562 poem by Arthur Brooke called
The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet; Brooke’s version was itself taken
from other works. Although Shakespeare kept elements of Brooke’s poem,
his alterations testify to his skills as a playwright. He condensed the time
frame from several months to four days to give the action momentum.
He restructured the beginning of the story in order to highlight the conflict
between the Capulets and the Montagues. He fleshed out secondary
characters and raised the body count. Then, of course, there’s his masterfully
crafted language.
Director Baz Luhrmann praised “the savagery of [Shakespeare’s] storytelling”
and called Romeo and Juliet a “rambunctious, violent, sexy, energetic,
comic, tragic love story.” In his film adaptation, Luhrmann wanted to capture
what he called Romeo and Juliet’s “youthful, out of control, drug-like love.”
(Bauer) Other than trimming the script, he left Shakespeare’s language
Carré and Barbier’s libretto for Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette stays fairly true
to Shakespeare’s play. The librettists cut some scenes and pared down
Shakespeare’s language but kept the story’s basic structure as well as all
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CONTENTS
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Romeo and Juliet has been adapted into many other art forms, inspiring
everything from symphonies and paintings, to video games and young
adult novels. The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow commissioned the composer
Sergei Prokofiev to write a Romeo and Juliet ballet, which opened in 1938.
Tchaikovsky composed “Romeo and Juliet,” an overture-fantasy, which is
still played in concert halls today. Chances are you’ve heard its love theme,
which has been used for decades in films, TV shows, and commercials to
convey characters falling in love at first sight.
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that I ever heard in my life.” Notwithstanding Pepys’ negative review, Romeo
and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays and one of the most
performed and adapted works in history. It has inspired films, operas, ballets,
classical and popular music, and more. The term “Romeo” has even entered
the English language to mean a man successful in love. And the city of
Verona, Italy, where the story takes place, has a volunteer cadre called the
Juliet Club that answers letters sent to Juliet from people all over the world.
A Love Story for the Ages
intact—though he gave the story a contemporary setting—and amped up
the intensity with lavish visual elements, lots of guns, and he cast beautiful
young actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the leading roles. In
at least one significant way, Luhrmann departed from Shakespeare and
followed in Carré and Barbier’s footsteps: he gave Romeo and Juliet a final
scene together before Juliet kills herself.
“An out and out plea for racial tolerance.” That’s what composer
Leonard Bernstein penciled into his copy of Romeo and Juliet early in the
development of West Side Story. The musical, which premiered on Broadway
in 1957 and later became an Oscar-winning film, replaced the feuding
Montagues and Capulets with the Sharks, a Puerto Rican street gang, and
the Jets, a white one. Despite this ambition, Arthur Laurents, who wrote the
play, said that he and his collaborators “didn’t want soapbox pounding for
[their] theme of young love destroyed by a violent world of prejudice,” but
wanted the musical to satisfy as a complex and multi-layered work of art.
CONTENTS
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Productions of Romeo and Juliet have been set amid the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, in apartheid South Africa, and in Baghdad with Montague and
Capulet as Shiite and Sunni. It’s clear that Romeo and Juliet has so much
to say—about fate and chance, youth and age, hate and love— it keeps
artists and audiences coming back to the story again and again throughout
the ages.
Photo: Clärchen Baus-Mattar & Matthias Baus, Salzburg Festival
activities
q
Discuss: What do you think accounts for Romeo and Juliet’s enduring popularity four centuries after its first performance? What is it that has inspired so many
artists to recreate this work?
q Group Activity: Form a design team to create a new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. What genre will your production be—a film, play, opera, musical?
Create a proposal to pitch your adaptation to producers. What changes will you make to Shakespeare’s play? What time period and locale will you set your
version in? What does this new production have to say about the themes of the play?
Try starting with these questions:
What can we learn about ourselves and our world from a 16th-century play?
How are the experiences of the characters different from or similar to your own experiences?
7
Juliet’s Balcony: An Enduring Adaptation
The scene in which Romeo and Juliet declare their love is
often referred to as “the balcony scene.” Contemporary audiences are accustomed to seeing the “Wherefore art thou?” scene with Juliet
leaning over her balcony and Romeo wooing her from the ground below.
But in Shakespeare’s time, the scene never included a balcony! The word
balcone (as it was initially spelled) did not exist in the English language until
after Shakespeare’s death. Juliet’s balcony was the invention of producer
David Garrick in an eighteenth century revival of the play. The image struck
a chord with audiences and has been part of many a production since.
For Further Investigation
For a list of YA reads inspired by fairy tales and classic literature—including
seven novels inspired by Romeo and Juliet—and a cool poster to download
for the classroom, check out: An Epic Chart of 162 Young Adult Retellings.
epicreads.com. February 26, 2014.
CONTENTS
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Sources
Bauer, Erik. “Re-revealing Shakespeare: Baz Luhrmann on Romeo + Juliet.” Creative Screenwriting.
creativescreenwriting.com. January 7, 2015. Web. December 15, 2015.
Burton, Jonathan. “Shakespeare in Liberal Arts Education.” From The Rock, Fall 2013. whittier.edu. Web.
December 15, 2015.
Deats, Sarah Munson. “Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet; Shakespeare for the Sixties.” Studies in Popular Culture 6
1983: 62.
Laurents, Arthur. “The Growth of an Idea.” From New York Herald Tribune. August 4, 1957. westsidestory.com.
Web. December 15, 2015.
Leveen, Lois. “Romeo and Juliet Has No Balcony.” The Atlantic. theatlantic.com. October 28, 2014. Web.
December 6, 2015.
activities
Photo: Clärchen Baus-Mattar & Matthias Baus, Salzburg Festival
q
Why do you think the image of Juliet on the balcony became such a popular one? How does it relate to the themes of the work?
q Do you think Lyric’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette should include a balcony? If so, why?
8
Romeo and Juliet
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
Michel Carré
Watercolor by John Massey Wright
Juliet on the Balcony.
CONTENTS
The first edition of Romeo and Juliet by
William Shakespeare is published. Scholars
believe Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet
sometime between 1591 and 1595. It ranks
second only to Hamlet as Shakespeare’s
most performed play.
1597
1730
Composer Charles Gounod, whose Roméo et
Juliette will become the most popular operatic
adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, is born in
Paris. He will study philosophy and theology
before devoting himself fully to a career in music.
Thirteen British colonies sign the Declaration of
Independence on July 4th, marking the formation of
the United States of America.
1776
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1818
1821
>
The first operatic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, a
Singspiel (a light opera in German containing spoken
dialogue) by Georg Benda premieres. The libretto,
by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, reunites the lovers in a
happy ending.
<
Michel Carré is born in Besançon, France, on
October 21. At age nineteen, he will move to Paris
to become a painter but instead will write poems,
plays, and libretti—including Roméo et Juliette.
The Gazette newspaper in New York runs an advertisement
for the earliest known production of Romeo and Juliet in
North America.
Romeo and Juliet
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
The death of Antonia (act 2) in the original 1881 production. In
front: Adèle Isaac; in back (left to right): Hippolyte Belhomme,
CONTENTS
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Alexandre Talazac.
Les contes fantastiques d’Hoffmann, a play by Barbier and Carré,
is produced in Paris. Thirty years later, Barbier will write the
libretto for the opera adaptation, Les contes d’Hoffmann (The
Tales of Hoffmann), composed by Jaques Offenbach.
Jules Barbier is born in Paris on March 8. He
will grow up to be a noted bon vivant (a person
known for enjoying parties, socializing, and
culture, including good food and drink), a poet,
and opera librettist who will collaborate with
Carré on the Roméo et Juliette libretto.
1825
In honor of Napoleon III, Gounod composes “Vive
l’Empereur,” the official anthem of the Second Empire
from 1852 to 1870.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is
published and stirs anti-slavery sentiments in the
U.S.
1851
1852
10
The Louvre Museum is re-inaugurated after the
addition of a new wing. It will become one of the
largest and most visited museums in the world.
Its 21st century collection will include a number of
works inspired by Shakespeare, including Romeo
and Juliet at the tomb of the Capulets by EugèneDelacroix.
18561857
<
Marguerite Ugalde, Pierre Grivot, Émile-Alexandre Taskin, Jean-
Romeo and Juliet
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln by Francis
Bicknell Carpenter
CONTENTS
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President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring
“that all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be
free.”
Charles Gounod in 1859, the year of the
premiere of Faust.
Roméo et Juliette premieres in Paris.
Gounod’s opera Faust, with a libretto by Carré and
Barbier, premieres in Paris. Between 1859 and 1868,
it will be performed over 300 times. Its success will
bring recognition for Gounod—and a commission to
compose Roméo et Juliette.
1859
The Civil War ends. Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater in Washington
D.C.
With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian
War, Gounod flees with his family to
England. He will return to Paris four years
later.
18631865 1867
11
1870
<
The vision of Marguerite as staged at Covent Garden in 1864
with Jean-Baptiste Faure as Méphistophélès and Giovanni
Mario as Faust
Romeo and Juliet
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
>
Le Grand Foyer at the Palais Garnier, home of the Opéra
National de Paris.
CONTENTS
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Tony stabs Bernardo in the 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story.
A film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet directed and cowritten by Franco Zeffirelli is the first cinematic version
of the story to use actors close in age to the characters
they play. Shakespearean scholar Sarah Munson Deats
will write that Zeffirelli’s film, which is released during
the Vietnam War, is “intended to attract…a generation
of young people, like Romeo and Juliet, estranged from
their parents, torn by the conflict between their youthful
cult of passion and the military tradition of their elders.”
(Deats)
Gounod dies in a suburb of Paris in 1893, after
a final revision of his twelve operas.
West Side Story, a musical based on Romeo and
Juliet, opens on Broadway. It sets the story in
1950s New York City with rival gangs the Sharks
and the Jets as Montagues and Capulets.
Gounod himself conducts the five hundredth
performance of Faust at the Opéra National de
Paris.
1888
1893
1957
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1968
Romeo and Juliet
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
Dire Straits
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and
Claire Danes, breaks the record for the highest-grossing Shakespeare
film of all time. Luhrmann gives the story a gritty, contemporary
setting, a sexy, young cast, and a best-selling pop music soundtrack.
Among his changes to Shakespeare’s script is a final scene in which
Romeo and Juliet share a last moment together before Juliet’s suicide,
a device also used by Carré and Barbier in their libretto.
activities
1988
1996
q
Choose a work of literature or art and make your own cultural/historical timeline of events that are relevant to the work you selected.
q
Find three historical events to add to this timeline. Explain your choices and their connection with Gounod’s opera.
13
2014
CONTENTS
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Historian Lois Leveen publishes Juliet’s Nurse, a novel that imagines the fourteen
years leading up to the events of Romeo and Juliet from the nurse’s point of view.
Interestingly, in Shakespeare’s play, the nurse has the third largest number of lines
after Romeo and Juliet. In Gounod’s opera, the nurse is played by a mezzo-soprano.
Mezzo-soprano roles typically include witches, nurses, and wise women.
<
“Romeo and Juliet,” a song by the British rock band
Dire Straits, is released as a single. Eight years later
Lou Reed will include “Romeo had Juliette” on his
album New York. Other pop musicians who reference
the young lovers in their songs include Bob Dylan,
Madonna, Radiohead, and Taylor Swift.
Reflecting on the Performance
These activities are designed to help you quickly and easily develop effective lesson plans built around clear
objectives. Objectives are written in “I Can” statements using student-friendly language, and all activities can be used to address state and national
learning standards.
Objectives:
•
I can describe the experience of attending a Lyric performance.
•
I can explain to others what aspect of the performance impacted me the most.
•
I can write a critical review of the performance.
Photo: Matthias Baus, Salzburg Festival
I can describe the experience of attending a Lyric
performance.
I can write a critical review of the performance.
1. First, ask students to create two lists:
1) a list of facts about the performance: who sang which roles,
what the costumes looked like, the setting, etc.
2) a list of opinions they felt about the performance: how well
the singers sang, if they liked the costumes, and whether
or not they felt the setting was appropriate for the story.
Be sure students address what they saw and heard at the
performance.
2. Next, guide students to use their lists to write a brief description of the
performance (facts) and what they thought about it (opinions).
3. Then, encourage students to write about what they liked best about
the performance and if they would recommend the opera to other
people.
4. Have students organize these components into one coherent critical
review.
5. To extent this activity, ask students to come up with five new
adjectives to describe what they saw and heard at the
performance. Encourage students to revise their first draft to include
this more descriptive language where appropriate.
6. Share the reviews with the school media team and Lyric Unlimited.
Ask students to write a paragraph reflecting on:
• their favorite part of the performance
•
something new they learned about opera from the experience
•
what part of the experience differed from their expectations
I can explain to others what aspect of the
performance impacted me the most.
1. Make a list with the class of parts of the experience that interested
them: sets, costumes, dramatic themes, music, audience etiquette,
building architecture, etc.
2. Divide the class into groups according to the listed categories and
ask each group to come up with a creative way, other than a
lecture presentation, to reflect on their experiences with content in
that category.
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CONTENTS
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Activities: