Roméo et Juliette (Gounod)

With its four duets for the title couple Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette is one of the most famous love tragedies in opera literature. Stage director Bartlett Sher (winner of this year's best director of a musical Tony Award for his revival of South Pacific on Broadway) makes his European opera debut with this production of Roméo et Juliette at the exceeding ambience of the Felsenreitschule. Rolando Villazón, one of the leading lyric tenors of our day and has been acclaimed for performances at leading theatres across the world, acts as Romeo. It's his first TV opera performance after his disease. As Julia acts the young Georgian soprano Nino Machaizde, who made her La Scala debut in 2006 as Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos under the baton of Jeffrey Tate. The young French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director designate of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducts for the first time in Salzburg.