Review by Rowena Hawkins, MA Shakespeare Studies

Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet is often more an homage to William Shakespeare than an adaptation of the playwright’s great romantic tragedy of young love and warring households. At one point in the French libretto he expresses grave doubts in lines about the inadequacy of any art form in any chosen language to represent first love and “This poetry itself, whose supreme secret only Shakespeare held”. Modest fretting aside, however, Romeo and Juliet is a real work of art, capturing all the thought and feeling of the play in an epic piece for a full orchestra, chorus, and soloists.

Berlioz first encountered ‘Romeo and Juliet’ when David Garrick’s heavily edited version – which gave the young lovers a happy ending – visited the Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1827. As well as falling for the Irish actress playing Juliet (Harriet Smithson), Berlioz fell for the play; his account of the performance’s effect on him in his memoirs is rapturous. “By the third act,” he recalls, “scarcely able to breathe… I knew that I was lost.” Despite not speaking English and knowing Shakespeare only “darkly through the mists of… translation”, Berlioz found that “the power of the acting, especially that of Juliet herself, the rapid flow of the scenes, the play of expression and voice and gesture, told me more and gave me a far richer awareness of the ideas and passions of the original than the words of my pale and garbled translation could do.” It is exactly this passion which flows into his symphony. Opening dramatically with racing strings under the masterful direction of Andrew Davis, the pace rarely lets up.

The most beautiful section of the seven-part piece is undoubtedly the Love Scene, Berlioz’s own favourite composition, which is realised particularly well in this performers particularly when the male singers slipping off-stage to sing behind the audience as revellers leave the Capulets’ ball, creating a really magical moment with the orchestra playing on stage and ethereal voices from behind, immersing the audience totally in the music.  There are brilliant solos throughout from Michèle Losier (soprano) and Samuel Boden (tenor), as well as from several instrumentalists breathing life into the characters with oboes, clarinets, and strings.

Thankfully, Berlioz restored the original ending cut by English dramatic adapters in the nineteenth century and his Romeo and Juliet culminates in a gorgeous finale bursting with passion and tragedy before a lengthy reconciliation of the two houses lead by bass David Soar as a particularly passionate Friar Laurence. Though not ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as we know it, this classical music tribute act is a stunning symphonic start to the qaudricentennial year.

The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Tuesday 26 January at 7.30pm and available on the iPlayer and iPlayer radio app after broadcast.

Other reviews:
http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/romeo-et-juliette-bbcso-davis-barbican

http://www.musicomh.com/classical/reviews-classical/bbc-davis-barbican-hall-london-2