Vienna Opera Tickets

Although Vincenzo Bellini's tragedia lirica, an opera set in two acts, ultimately shares its literary roots with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I Capuleti e i Montecchi was shaped more directly through the work of the librettist Felice Romani. This production at the Wiener Staatsoper highlights the enmity displayed between the Capuleti and Montecchi rival factions as the opera's two main characters, Romeo and Giulietta, try to find a way to make their love for one another bridge the divide. Romani's plot differs from Shakespeare's famous play, first staged in England in the 1590s, in significant ways. Consequently, opera goers will typically find something new in the way Bellini's music portrays the renowned star-crossed lovers.

Bellini was commissioned to compose the opera for the 1830 Carnival season at Venice's Teatro La Fenice. The new work would be based on another opera of 1825, Giulietta e Romeo, by Nicola Vaccai which had, in turn, drawn its inspiration from an 1818 play by the Italian dramatist Luigi Scevola. Romani provided the libretto for Bellini’s opera, adapting and reworking his previous work for Vaccai. With only a matter of weeks to submit his assignment, Bellini – who was still in his twenties at the time – completed the work using, in part, music taken from his poorly received opera, Zaira, modifying various parts to fit the new story.

At the premiere of I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which took place on 11 March 1830 at Teatro La Fenice, Bellini's opera enjoyed an enthusiastic reception. Although the initial run of performances for the Venice Carnival was short, his subsequent notoriety as a composer spread, helping Bellini to consolidate his reputation as a true maestro. The opera went on to be staged all over Italy in the years after its first staging, with several dozen productions. Indeed, I Capuleti e i Montecchi would go on to eclipse Giulietta e Romeo despite the two operas being based on similar libretti, albeit with some changes that Romani agreed to during Bellini's frenzied compositional work as his deadline loomed.

Over the course of its two dramatic acts, I Capuleti e i Montecchi tells a classic love story. In this version, Giulietta's father, Capellio Capuleti, leads a faction which clashes with another, one led by Romeo Montecchi himself. Although Romeo and Giulietta share a secret love, she has been betrothed to a different man, Tebaldo. The rivalry between Romeo and Tebaldo, coupled with the political conflict between Giulietta's father and Romeo, her lover, gives the plot an emotional charge that is fully exploited by Bellini's score. Will the pair flee Verona as they have planned or will fate take a more tragic turn? The Vienna State Opera's production leaves audiences enthralled as the drama is powerfully played out.