Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz)

Roméo et Juliette is a seven-movement symphonie dramatique for orchestra and three choruses, with vocal solos, by French composer Hector Berlioz. Émile Deschamps wrote its libretto with Shakespeare's play as his base. The work was completed in 1839 and first performed on 24 November of that year, but it was modified before its first publication, in 1847, and modified again for the 2ème Édition of 1857, today's reference. It bears the catalogue numbers Op. 17 and H. 79. Regarded as one of Berlioz's finest achievements, Roméo et Juliette is also among his most original in form and his most comprehensive and detailed to follow a program. The vocal forces are used in the 1st, 5th and 7th movements.

Composition

Genesis

Initial inspiration came from a performance he witnessed in 1827 of Romeo and Juliet (in David Garrick's edited version) at the Odéon Theatre in Paris. The cast included his future wife Harriet Smithson, who also inspired Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. In his Memoirs, Berlioz describes the electrifying effect of the drama:

... to steep myself in the fiery sun and balmy nights of Italy, to witness the drama of that passion swift as thought, burning as lava, radiantly pure as an angel's glance, imperious, irresistible, the raging vendettas, the desperate kisses, the frantic strife of love and death, was more than I could bear. By the third act, scarcely able to breathe—it was as though an iron hand had gripped me by the heart—I knew that I was lost. I may add that at the time I did not know a word of English; I could only glimpse Shakespeare darkly through the mists of Letourneur's translation; the splendour of the poetry which gives a whole new glowing dimension to his glorious works was lost on me. ... But 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.

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The range of feeling and mood as well as poetic and formal invention which Berlioz found in Shakespeare had a strong influence on his music, making a direct musical setting of Shakespeare's work only natural. In fact, he had been planning a musical realisation of Romeo and Juliet for a long time before 1838, but other projects intervened. Emile Deschamps (the librettist of the work) says that he and Berlioz worked out a plan for the symphony shortly after the Odéon's 1827/28 season. Indeed, it may be the case that Roméo et Juliettes genesis is intertwined with other works composed before the composer left for his Prix de Rome sojourn of 1830 to 1832. Sardanapale, the cantata with which Berlioz finally won the Prix de Rome in 1830, puts the melodic material of both the Roméo seul ("Romeo alone") portion of the second movement and the Grande fête chez Capulet ("Great banquet at the Capulets").

There is abundant evidence that Berlioz was gradually working out a scheme for Roméo et Juliette during his sojourn in Italy. He reviewed a February 1831 performance in Florence of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, outlining in passing how he would compose music for the Roméo et Juliette story: it would feature, he says, the sword fight, a concert of love, Mercutio's piquant buffooning, the terrible catastrophe, and the solemn oath of the two rival families. One line of text from the review eventually shows up in the libretto of the symphony. Berlioz finished the score on 8 September 1839.

The work's libretto is not sourced from the original plays, and as a result contains changes from Shakespeare's play, both in the version Berlioz worked from, and subsequent cuts he and his librettist made. Berlioz's composition was heavily influenced by the play he had seen acted by Charles Kemble and Harriet Smithson in 1827, which had been rewritten by the 18th century actor David Garrick to have Juliet awaken from her deathlike sleep before Romeo's death from (a much slower acting) poison. Berlioz enlisted the services of author Emile Deschamps to write the libretto. Between them they also left out the character of the nurse and expanded Shakespeare's brief mention of the two families' reconciliation into a substantial vocal finale.

Performance

From composition until the first performance, Berlioz's time was occupied with physical arrangements for the premiere: parts were copied, chorus parts lithographed, and rehearsals got underway. The bass-baritone, Adolphe-Louis Alizard (Friar Lawrence), and the Prologue chorus, all of whom came from the Paris Opéra, were prepared during the intermissions of performances there. on 24 November, 1 December and 15 December 1839, before capacity audiences that comprised much of the Parisian intelligentsia. One notable audience member was Richard Wagner, who would later note the influence of the symphony on his opera Tristan und Isolde. He continued to revise the work, a few instances upon the suggestions of critics, but generally by his own judgement.

A premiere of a later revision (including cuts and changes to the Prologue, Queen Mab Scherzo, and the Finale) was held in Vienna on 2 January 1846, the first performance since 1839 and the first abroad. After hearing a complete performance in Vienna on 26 January 1846, Berlioz took the opportunity to make major revisions before a performance scheduled for the following April in Prague. He accepted advice from several confidants and advisers, rewriting the coda of the Queen Mab Scherzo, shortening Friar Laurence's narrative at the end, deleting a lengthy second Prologue at the beginning of the second half, and introducing musical foreshadowing in the first prologue.

Reflecting on the first performances, Berlioz commented in his memoirs:

The work is enormously difficult to perform. It poses problems of every kind, problems inherent in the form and in the style and only to be solved by long and patient rehearsal, impeccably directed. To be well done, it needs first-rate performers—players, singers, conductor—intent on preparing it with as much care as a new opera is prepared in a good opera house, in fact almost as if it were to be performed by heart.

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Instrumentation

The score calls for:

piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons
4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba
2 pairs of timpani, 2 Tambourines, 2 Triangles, bass drum, cymbals, crotales
2 harps and strings
contralto, tenor, bass

Music

Structurally and musically, Roméo et Juliette is most indebted to Beethoven's 9th symphony – not just due to the use of soloists and choir, but in factors such as the weight of the vocal contribution being in the finale, and also in aspects of the orchestration such as the theme of the trombone recitative at the Introduction.</blockquote>

The vocal forces are used sparingly throughout, until they are fully deployed in the finale.

The stylistic links of the work with Beethoven before (and Wagner after) could not be stronger. From Beethoven, Berlioz learned the very notion of programmatic music. He saw in the Pastoral symphony how music might be depictive without being naïve, in the symphonic scherzi how the delicate Queen Mab might best be evoked, and in the 9th symphony how effective a choral finale could be. He sensed Beethoven's flexibility with regard to number of movements and the performing force.

Beyond the influence on Wagner's music drama, the piece pushed the limits of the contemporary orchestra's capabilities, in terms of colour, programmatic scope and individual virtuosity. While this applies to much of Berlioz's music, it is even more true for Roméo et Juliette, written at the height of his powers and ambition. Its vivid scene-setting surpasses many operas, which constitutes an enormous success on Berlioz's part. Franz Liszt also recognised the significance of Berlioz as a progressive composer, and championed his music.

Structure

Part I

Part II

Part III

Recordings

Complete

Roméo et Juliette: Gladys Swarthout, John Garris, Nicola Moscona. Arturo Toscanini cond., NBC Symphony Orchestra. 2 CDs, ADD, RCA Records. Recorded 1947.
Roméo et Juliette: Margaret Roggero, Leslie Chabay, Yi-Kwei Sze. Charles Munch cond., Boston Symphony Orchestra, Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society. RCA Records Victor LP LM 6011; CD reissue RCA/BMG GD 60681. Recorded Boston, 22–23 February 1953.
Roméo et Juliette: Irma Kolassi, Joseph Peyron, Lucien Lovano. Charles Munch cond., Orchestre National et Choœurs de la RTF. 2 CDs, Cascavelle. Live recording, Paris, 25 June 1953.
Roméo et Juliette: Rosalind Elias, Cesare Valletti, Giorgio Tozzi. Boston Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory Chorus. RCA Records Victor LP LD 6098; CD reissue RCA/BMG 74321 341682. Recorded Boston, 23–24 April 1961.
Roméo et Juliette: Regina Resnik, André Turp, David Ward. Pierre Monteux cond., London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Westminster LP XWN2233; CD reissues Millennium Classics MCAD-29805, DG Westminster 471 2422. Recorded Walthamstow Town Hall, 18–21 June 1962.
Roméo et Juliette: Patricia Kern, Robert Tear, John Shirley-Quirk. Sir Colin Davis cond., London Symphony Orchestra, John Alldis Choir, Philips LP SAL3695-96, CD reissue 416 962.2. Recorded Wembley Town Hall, 24, 27–28 February, 13–14 April 1968.
Roméo et Juliette: Christa Ludwig, Michel Sénéchal, Nicolai Ghiaurov. Lorin Maazel cond. ORTF Choir, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Decca Records SET570-71. Recorded 11–15 December 1972, Sofiensaal, Vienna.