The obvious source for Gounod’s opera is William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, first performed in the early 1590s. But Shakespeare had his own sources, of course. Most immediately it was Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, published in 1562, a work that had some popularity in England at the time. Elements of the story come, of course, from Italy: Il Novellino, 1476, by Masucchio and Luigi da Porto’s Istoria novellamenta ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti (“Newly discovered history of two noble lovers”). The Istoria is essentially the story as we know it from Shakespeare but with a slightly different ending. The families are named Montecchi and Capuletti, all of the major characters are present and accounted for, and the whole plot pivots on the sleeping potion that Juliet takes to mimic death. In the tomb scene, however, Juliet awakes before Romeo dies so that they have a few tender moments together (unlike in the Shakespeare in which Romeo is already dead a few moments before Juliet recovers). Interestingly, da Porto has Friar Lorenzo (Laurence) appear to try to convince Juliet to enter a convent; she responds by holding her breath until she expires!
Gounod’s librettists, Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, had extensive experience in opera. They collaborated on scores of operas, most significantly on Faust, Roméo et Juliette, Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet and Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. It’s not known which French translation of the Shakespeare they used as a basis for their libretto for Roméo (some point to Victor Hugo’s translation), but they were sensitive enough to borrow phrases and allusions from the original to give their poem an authentic ring; “He jests at scars that never felt a wound…what light through yonder window breaks?...parting is such sweet sorrow…a plague on both your houses”, all find French equivalents in the libretto. Gounod loved the progression of the acts, from the Capulet’s party and the lovers’ first meeting to the tender balcony scene, the violent confrontation between the families, the grandiosity of the wedding and the tragic finale. Although the five act structure was de rigeur for French theatres at the time, it happened to coincide with the dramatic structure of the original Shakespeare (Freytag’s Pyramid of exposition/rising action/climax/falling action/dénouement). Of the many operas based on Shakespeare’s plays, thanks to Carré and Barbier’s libretto, Gounod’s opera is among those that come closest to being true to the letter and spirit of the original.