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Romeo & Juliet at the Circus, or a Director’s Search for Visual Effects Toronto
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
09/29/2025 - & October 5, 8, 10, 14, 16, 18*, 2025
Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette
Mark Stone (Capulet), Stephen Costello (Roméo), Robert Pomakov (Frère Laurent), Owen McCausland (Tybalt), Ben Wallace (Pâris), Gordon Bintner/Korin Thomas‑Smith* (Mercutio), Angelo Moretti (Benvolio), Alex Halliday (Le Duc de Vérone), Justin Welsh (Grégorio), Alex Hetherington (Stéphano), Kseniia Proshina (Juliette), Megan Latham (Gertrude)
Canadian Opera Chorus, Sandra Horst (chorus master), Canadian Opera Orchestra, Yves Abel (Conductor)
Amy Lane (stage direction), Emma Ryott (sets & costumes), Charlie Morgan Jones (lighting), Michael Barry (choreography)
K. Proshina, S. Costello (© Michael Cooper)
In the world of operatic production, the director is crucial. When the director is of the calibre of Damiano Michieletto, Christof Loy or Robert Carsen, one’s enjoyment is greatly enhanced. The latter’s ici recent staging of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is a case in point – it’s a marriage of creativity and intelligence from a brilliant mind that makes the experience memorably moving. Alas, these directors are the exception, not the rule, in today’s opera world.
British director Amy Lane seems to be a new favourite of Toronto’s C.O.C. and this is an unfortunate development. Last season, her staging of Gounod’s Faust was utterly uninspired, plagued by her attempts to generate striking images with little coherence or plot relevance. In the same spirit, this production, easily the absolute worst of over a dozen productions of Roméo et Juliette I’ve seen, also aims to create memorable images with little relevance to the plot, simply to create an effect. Sadly, the effect was boredom. Never could I have imagined a production of this sentimental French opera (thankfully with a single intermission) would feel longer than Götterdämmerung or Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
The opera opened to a circus scene that one deduced was run by the Capulets. Emma Ryott’s colorful costumes of clowns, acrobats and magicians were indeed magnificent, though the circus is the last thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Romeo and Juliet. Juliette seems to have rehearsed her waltz “Je veux vivre” as a number to be presented on a trapeze. She sang on a stage within a stage, with clowns twisting to a waltz. Again, one could not deny this was a striking image, but to make it a performance piece rather the expression of young Juliette’s thirst for life greatly diminishes its dramatic effect.
Roméo and his companions, masked, wander the circus grounds where Roméo meets Juliette. A perplexing question arises: where do the Montagues enter their family feud with the circus family? It’s preposterous. Feuds between well‑entrenched nobles centuries ago might make sense. A feud between late nineteenth century circus performers and a rival circus (or those manning the concession stands) is decidedly less compelling.
The action was obviously moved to the late nineteenth century, as revealed by the attire. The location remained either anonymous or mysterious. Nothing evoked Verona, not to mention Italy. The dark lights, effective in contrasting with the clowns’ colourful costumes, together with the full moon characterised much of the performance. Given the time transposition, the geographical relocation and costumes that evoked late Victorian London, I thought that Lane’s “innovation” this time would be in the horror genre, perhaps inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). The Capulets and Montagues would be the Draculas and the Van Helsings. Alas, even that wasn’t to be.
Only by reading an article by the British director in the program could one discover that Lane’s inspiration was New York City. After that revelation, I thought over the images and could not find anything typical of NYC. She explained the feud as one between immigrant families, one established and another a recent arrival. Really? Any staging that requires a director’s notes to comprehend it is doomed from the start, as proved by this disastrous production.
The libretto of an opera should be the guide for anyone attempting to stage an opera. With Lane’s transposition, one laughed at the chorus singing “Vérone vit jadis,” and the mention of “Il Duca” or the Duke of Verona who exiles Roméo, after the latter killed Tybalt. We find out there were Pages among immigrant families in New York, that there was a Duke in New York who administered justice, and that the city was so lawless the penalty for murder was mere exile. A tantalising question is where did New York criminals get exiled to? New Jersey? Toronto?
Fortunately, the singing was much better than the dull staging. The two lead singers were excellent, though they never really convinced, given the daft direction. Most likely, it was harder for Juliette to feel the marvel of first love as a circus act rather than a nubile aristocrat. Likewise, it’s less inspiring for Romeo to serenade Juliette on a circus stage rather than a balcony.
The cast was dominated by Russian soprano Kseniia Proshina, whose brilliant upper register was impressive. She also astonished with her impeccable French diction, a language difficult to sing given its abundance of diphthongs and nasal sounds. Her rendition of the Act I “Je veux vivre” was vocally first‑rate but lacked conviction. It felt like a bravura number to be performed at the circus, exactly as Lane had staged it. Perhaps this detachment was deliberate. In contrast, she showed ample conviction in the “poison aria,” the Act IV “Dieu ! Quel frisson court dans mes veines,” where she was truly affecting.
American tenor Stephen Costello, a bel canto specialist, had the right voice for Roméo. His Act II “Ah ! Lève‑toi soleil” was brilliantly sung, in relatively good French. His enunciation was right: individual words were properly delivered, but the overall feel for the language was missing. Still, his Roméo was vocally excellent.
Both leading roles are quite demanding, as they are called for throughout. Acts IV and V are basically extended duets. Nonetheless, neither Proshina nor Costello showed any sign of fatigue.
Young Canadian mezzo Alex Hetherington did a good job in the trouser role of the page Stéphano. Her demeanour and gestures were convincingly “male,” and her rendition of “Depuis hier, je cherche en vain mon maître” was elegantly delivered.
Baritone Korin Thomas-Smith was a competent Mercutio. Endowed with a powerful voice and commanding stage presence, he sang a charming “Mab, reine des mensonges,” though his diction was not as good as one would have liked.
In this New York City setting, Frère Laurent was an apothecary, perhaps to justify his mastery of the deep sleep potion given to Juliette. The Duke, the ridiculous nobleman transposed to a New York City circus, was shot dead by a female companion after uttering his last lines, another twist by the director, possibly to create yet another confounding “effect.”
Canadian Yves Abel, a frequent conductor of French opera, led the Canadian Opera Orchestra with panache. He showed great affinity for Gounod’s score and managed to make this often saccharine music shine, avoiding sentimentality or dullness, as happens in less competent hands. The Canadian Opera Chorus showed their versatility by singing with better diction than most of the secondary singers. They gave just the right dose of humour in the Act II ensemble “Personne, personne,” and the “Ah jour de deuil” finale to Act III sounded appropriately solemn.
Alas, Lane may have been too successful in her visual effects. Until I see a better production of Roméo et Juliette, I fear images of clowns and acrobats will appear on hearing this opera.
Ossama el Naggar
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