I Capuleti e i Montecchi

I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is an Italian opera (tragedia lirica) in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini.

The original text

The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo and based on the play of the same name by Luigi Scevola written in 1818, thus an Italian source rather than taken directly from William Shakespeare.

Performance history in South Africa

2006: Presented by Opera Africa at the Opera State Theatre from October 27 to November 12, directed by Laurence Dale, with Michelle Breedt (Romeo), Kaiser Nkosi (Lorenzo), Rouel Beukes (Capellio), Stéfan Louw (Tebaldo), Francesca Park/Violina Anguelov (Juliet). Chamber Orchestra of SA conducted by Jeremy Silver. Stage director Laurence Dale, Set designer Dipu Gupta, Costume designer Andrew Verster, Lighting designer Declan Randall, Repétiteur Janet Haney.

2019: Presented by Cape Town Opera at the Artscape Opera House in a new production by Steven Stead, Michael Mitchell and Kobus Rossouw. The youthful cast (composed of CTO Young Artists and senior students from the UCT Opera School) included Brittany Smith, Nombulelo Yende, Ané Pretorius and Siphokazi Molteno alternating as the star-crossed lovers, under the baton of Jeremy Silver.

Sources

https://capetownopera.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/AR-Version-10.pdf

'A little chutzpah goes a long, long way'. IOL. 26 September 2006.

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