As I began studying this role, my initial reaction was YIKES!  Even though it was written for mezzo-soprano Giuditta Grisi, the role sat so high that I found myself asking, is Romeo really a mezzo role, or is it a “closet soprano” role?   Nonetheless, I began by listening to the various recordings I had of Capuleti with mezzos Agnes Baltsa, Janet Baker and Diana Montague. I also listened to a friend’s recordings of Jennifer Larmore and Vesselina Kasarova, and to a clip of my favorite mezzo, Fiorenza Cossotto, singing Romeo’s aria.  It was clear that this was a role that was sung by many types of mezzos, yet I still found the music daunting.  The fioriture were not a problem, but the tessitura was another story.  If anything, I knew that singing this part would surely improve my technique and teach me a lesson, or two, in “weight distribution” (or at least that’s what I told myself).  Mainly how much weight to take to the top, or not, on a role like this one.  How to “hang high” yet not lighten up too much and lose the core of my sound. Or how to sit indefinitely in my passaggio without feeling like my larynx was crowding my eyeballs!  Or more importantly, how to sing a high note as my larynx was crowding my eyeballs. Yes, good times!

Agnes Baltsa

While I’m no dramatic mezzo, it was interesting to see just how Cossotto and Simionato did it since these were singers with big voices.  But after listening to all my recordings, my favorite singer in the role became Agnes Baltsa.  Hers is a full and pointed sound, but yet very lyrical.  A perfect combination, I thought, for the role of Romeo and perhaps the approach I felt would keep me out of trouble.  But when it came to the interpretation of the role, Kasarova was surely the one to watch.

It just doesn’t get any manlier than Vesselina Kasarova’s Romeo.  My friend Melinda Becker, who’s also covering the role, called me and said, “Alex, go on YouTube and watch Kasarova.  I swear, she’s a dude!”.  She was right.  Her transformation was absolutely riveting.   So I was happy to have found what I believed was the perfect combination to guide me through this: the singing of Baltsa and the acting of Kasarova, all while attempting to make Romeo my own.  And I had exactly one month to do this.  Hmm.......yeah.  Luckily for me, Courtney Ross (one of the Giuliettas and a terrific singer) was in town, so we were able to meet and go over our music.  Debbie, a close friend and also a pianist, was kind enough to take time out of her very busy schedule to play for us.   After our two practice sessions and my own work, I felt a few steps closer to my goal of having vocal command of this role by the first day of rehearsals.  This made me supremely happy.  I thought it would be ideal for me to focus most of the official rehearsal time on being a “dude”.

Felice Romani’s libretto for I Capuleti e i Montecchi was not based on Shakespeare’s play, but on the ninth novel in a set of novels written by Matteo Bandello in 1550, called Le Novelle.  In Romani’s version of Romeo and Juliet, the Capulets and the Montagues are not feuding families, but warring political factions. Romeo is not the son of Montague, but the head of the Montagues.  Reading all this changed my perception of Romeo and I no longer saw him as a teenager, but as a man in his early to mid-twenties.  I also felt that Bellini’s music for him supported this notion in that it is passionate, but also strong,  decisive, and.....mature.  It certainly drove me to play an older Romeo.  But I tried not to attach myself too much to this idea since I didn’t know what the director’s vision would be......

Vesselina Kasarova as

Romeo

Alexandra Mena, Mezzo-Soprano ◊ Copyright © 2007-2012

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