Romeo und Julia is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in two acts by Heinrich Sutermeister

Heinrich Sutermeister

Heinrich Sutermeister was a Swiss opera composer.-Life and career:During the early 1930s he was a student at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich where Carl Orff was his teacher and Orff remained a powerful influence on his music. Returning to Switzerland in the mid 1930s, he devoted his life to...

. The composer wrote the libretto, after William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

.

Erik Levi explains that the opera: "presents a synthesis of Romantic and impressionist elements. It marks a . . . return to the conception of opera as a sequence of closed forms, incorporating . . . stylistic features related to madrigal, oratorio and pantomime."

Performance history

It was first performed on 13 April 1940, at the Staatsoper

Semperoper

The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...

, Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, under the musical direction of Karl Böhm

Karl Böhm

Karl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.- Education :...

, who also commissioned the work, with Maria Cebotari

Maria Cebotari

Maria Cebotari was a celebrated Moldavian soprano and actress born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire , who made her career in Germany & Austria.-Biography:...

 as Julia, and was a considerable success.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast, 13 April 1940 (Conductor: Karl Böhm)
Julia, daughter of the Capuletis	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Maria Cebotari Maria Cebotari Maria Cebotari was a celebrated Moldavian soprano and actress born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire , who made her career in Germany & Austria.-Biography:...
Romeo, son of Montague	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Balthasar, Romeo's servant	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Nurse	soprano	Inger Karén
Capuleti (Capulet)	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Kurt Böhme Kurt Böhme Kurt Böhme was a German bass.He was born in Dresden, Germany, where he studied with Adolf Kluge at the Dresden Conservatory. He made his debut in 1930 in Bautzen as Kaspar, one of his most important roles further on...
Countess Capuleti (Lady Capulet)	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	Helena Rott
Father Lorenzo (Friar Laurence)	bass	Sven Nilsson
Escalus, Prince of Verona	baritone
Servant	tenor
Montague, Romeo's father	spoken
Count Paris	ballerina

Synopsis

Sutermeister's version follows Shakespeare's plot. In the final scene, a celestial chorus celebrate the union in death of the two lovers.

Recordings

Sutermeister: Romeo und Julia – Bavarian Radio Chorus, Tölzer Knabenchor

Tölzer Knabenchor

The Tölzer Knabenchor is a boys' choir with roots in the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz.The choir group is still led by director and singing master Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, who founded the choir in 1956 when he was only nineteen years old. The founder was once a student of Carl Orff's and worked with him...

, Munich Radio Orchestra

Munich Radio Orchestra

The Munich Radio Orchestra is a German symphony orchestra based in Munich. It is one of the two orchestras affiliated with the Bavarian Radio , the other being the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra....

• Conductor: Heinz Wallberg
  Heinz Wallberg
  Heinz Wallberg was a German conductor. He studied trumpet, violin and piano. He helped to support his family with his musical training after his father became unable to work...
  
  
• Principal singers: Ferry Gruber, Raimund Grumbach, Nikolaus Hillebrand, Urszula Koszut, Hildegard Laurich
  Hildegard Laurich
  Hildegard Laurich , is a German classical contralto singer.- Professional career :Hildegard Laurich studied at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, in Berlin with Hermann Weissenborn, and in private study with Fred Husler in Cureglia.She sang mostly in concert, particularly in works of Johann...
  
  , Theodor Nicolai, Adolf Dallapozza
  Adolf Dallapozza
  Adolf Dallapozza is an Austrian tenor in opera, operetta and musical theatre He worked for more than 40 years at the Vienna Volksoper.-Career:Dallapozza was trained as a clerk and started work in a book shop...
  
  , Paul Hansen, Alexander Malta, Gudrun Wewezow, Joern W. Wilsing, Heinrich Weber, Anton Rosner
• Recording date: 1980?
• Label: Musiques Suisses – 6263 (2 CDs)