Programme:

Hector Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 17

When Hector Berlioz saw Romeo and Juliet for the first time at the Odéon theatre in Paris in 1827, he was utterly entranced by the actress playing Juliet, Harriet Smithson, who would eventually become his wife. It was this encounter that gave him the idea for his largest-scale symphonic work, which he would not complete until 1839. In Berlioz’s choral symphony Roméo et Juliette, the emotions of the eponymous sweethearts are rendered by the orchestra, while the chorus and soloists add further depth to the dramatic setting. Drawing on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with its combination of expanded orchestral forces and chorus, the composer created a new musical form – the programme symphony with choral passages – that takes the listener from lively scenes in the streets of Verona to the majestic finale in the graveyard. Among those captivated by this unique fusion of symphonic writing and theatre at its premiere was the young Wagner. The work is still regarded today as one of the pinnacles of Romantic music.

The performance will be led by Charles Dutoit, a conductor with a career spanning more than six decades whose achievements include two Grammy Awards and collaborations with the world’s greatest orchestras. His discography consists of more than 200 critically acclaimed recordings, many of them winners of prestigious international awards. The soloists will be the tenor Cyrille Dubois, hailed by French and international media as one of the leading voices of his generation, the mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne, known for her Mozartian roles and her new approaches to the French vocal repertoire, and the bass Edwin Crossley-Mercer, a frequent guest at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. The vocal soloists will be joined by the Kaunas State Choir from Lithuania, acclaimed since its founding in 1969, and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the Ljubljana Festival.