The Capulets and the

Montagues

MontaguesRomeo Montague Head of the Montecchi family,

Giulietta’s lover

CapuletsCapellio Capulet Head of the Capuleti family

Lorenzo Capellio’s advisor, friend of Romeo

Tebaldo Giulietta’s husband-to-be

Giulietta Capulet Juliet, Capellio’s daughter

Cast of Characters

Romeo... Trouser Role

The role of Romeo is sung by a mezzo soprano. It is very common in opera for mezzos and contraltos to sing the roles of young, male characters.

Idomeneo

CherubinoHansel and Gretel

Romeo and GiuliettaOctavian

The Capulets and the Montagues (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) is the story of Romeo and Juliet, based on medieval Italian sources rather than Shakespeare’s play.

In this version, the Capulets and Montagues belong to rival political factions known as the Guelphs (gelfs) and Ghibellines (gib-a-LEENS).

Before the action of the opera, Romeo, head of the Montagues, has killed Capellio’s son in battle. Capellio is the father of Giulietta and leader of the Capulets. Giulietta has been betrothed to Tebaldo, but has secretly been carrying on a romance with Romeo. Only Lorenzo, Giulietta’s doctor, knows about their love.

Background Information

Act I Capellio announces that the criminal Romeo plans to send a peace envoy to them. But Tebaldo, promised to marry his beloved Giulietta that very day, vows to avenge the death of Capellio’s son by killing Romeo. Lorenzo tries to postpone the marriage because Giulietta has been ill, but his concerns are brushed aside.

Tebaldo

Act I Romeo enters, posing as his own envoy, and declares that Romeo deeply regrets the death of Capellio’s son. He wishes to restore peace by marrying Giulietta, thereby atoning for his misdeed by becoming a second son to the old man. When Capellio refuses, announcing that Tebaldo will fill that role, Romeo promises future bloodshed.

Romeo

Act I

Lorenzo leads Romeo to Giulietta’s room for a secret tryst. Passionately Romeo urges Giulietta to flee with him, but she can’t bring herself to leave her home and father and begs him to leave before he is discovered.

Lorenzo Giulietta

Act I As the Capulets prepare for Giulietta’s wedding to Tebaldo, Lorenzo finds Romeo there in disguise, ready to lead his men in an attack that will disrupt the ceremony. In the confusion of the fight, Romeo again urges Giulietta to elope with him, but they are discovered by Capellio and Tebaldo, who are incensed to see the Ghibelline envoy involved in the failed abduction.

Chorus Man

Act I

Defiantly, Romeo reveals his identity, narrowly escaping Tebaldo’s rage when the Montagues arrive to rescue him.

Romeo Montague Soldier

Act II

Lorenzo comforts Giulietta with the news that Romeo is safe, but tells her she will soon be taken to Tebaldo’s house for the wedding. After Lorenzo assures her that Romeo will meet her when she wakes, she drinks a sleeping potion that will simulate death.

Chorus Women

Act II

When Capellio enters, the weakening Giulietta begs his forgiveness. Even though the family asks him to be more compassionate, Capellio hardens his heart and orders Tebaldo and his men to spy on Lorenzo whom he now suspects and to confine him to the house.

Giulietta Capellio

Act II Awaiting Lorenzo, Romeo encounters the prowling Tebaldo. Just as they are about to fight, they hear the sound of Giulietta’s funeral procession. Devastated by the news, each asks the other to kill him and ease his torment.

Chorus Woman

Act II Romeo visits Giulietta’s tomb to make his farewells and then takes poison. Giulietta soon awakens to discover Romeo near death, and after a tender goodbye, she dies of grief over Romeo’s body.

Chorus Man

•Bellini and his librettist, Romani, did not base their version of the story of Romeo and Giulietta on Shakespeare’s play.

•Shakespeare was not widely read in Italy in the first part of the 19th century (when the opera was written).

•The story of the “star crossed lovers” originated in the form of an Italian novella.

Bellini Romani

Shakespeare

•The libretto’s action is entirely set on the day of Giulietta’s wedding to Tebaldo.

•Steingraber’s visualization of the production began with a wedding dress.

Wedding party c. 1909

•Wedding dresses, as recognized by today’s audience, first appeared in the Victorian period.

•The production should be set sometime in the last 125 years.

•Steingraber chose the period after the turn of the century but before the First World War (1904-1914).

•From the beginning of its nationhood until 1904, the Pope forbid Italian Catholics from voting.

•Socialism gained a stronghold with a major turn-out in the 1914 elections.

Filipo TuratiLeader of the right wing of the Socialist Party

•The period between 1904 and 1914 seemed an ideal background for setting the historic conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the real-life factions represented by the Capuleti and Montecchi families.

Capulet Coat of Arms Montague Coat of Arms

•This production renders a story that is not family versus family, but rather a generational conflict.

•Romeo and Giulietta are the objects of centuries of familial repression in which a patriarchal society deprives young lovers of their rights to self-determination.

•The chorus men and Capellio are represented as wealthy industrialists; the battles are fought by the younger men, Tebaldo and his peers.

•The chorus women are silent, not singing a note until the penultimate scene of the opera.

•The scenery is not realistic.

•The production exists as if in the memory of its characters, the world as seen through the eyes of young lovers who are united only in the moments before their deaths, and whose life together is spent not in the Earthly realm, but rather in eternity.