UVU Opera performs a classic Shakespeare love story

Shakespeare’s greatest love story, Roméo et Juliette, was brought to the stage by UVU Opera at the Loveland Performing Arts Center Jan. 22.

The story is the familiar classic everyone loves, except set to music.  The story line is also different enough from Shakespeare’s original story that when Romeo and Juliet serenade each other, they sweep the audience into the love affair.

“I found it so interesting that [the actors] tied everything in so well,” attendee Heather Pope said. “They [tied] in the language so well with the feeling of it and the story line, and they bring it in through the characters. … It was just beautiful.”

Singing in Italian and making the opera humorous was one of the audience’s favorite parts. Characters flirted with nurse maids and other characters made fun of Romeo and his love life.

“I only read [Romeo and Juliet] in junior high and I hated it. So, seeing [it] as an opera is nice because you don’t have to deal with pre-teens not knowing how Shakespeare works,” attendee Avery Ogle said.

The original ending of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has the two rival families joining together in peace. This opera focused on the death of Romeo and Juliet and didn’t show the parents coming together. Instead, the opera opened with a prologue showing the families coming together performed as a ballet.

“I thought the singing was fantastic,” Ogle said. “I had never been to an opera, so I didn’t know what to expect. But, it was definitely what I thought an opera was going to be.”