For a time Gounod had intended Roméo et Juliette to be an opéra-comique with spoken dialogue. It wasn’t until he was well into the rehearsal process that he decided to write recitatives to make it more like the grand opera that was being produced by the Paris Opéra. One can easily see this by virtue of the fact that the opera is essentially a ‘number’ opera with set- pieces…arias, duets and other ensembles…that can stand alone. Just listing the numbers will show this: the prologue, the opening chorus at the ball, the Ballade of Queen Mab, Juliet’s waltz, the madrigal duet “Ange adorable”…and this is only Act One! It would not do great violence to the opera to remove the recitatives and replace them with dialogue, but there is something subtler given to the opera with the addition of the musical ‘glue’ that recitatives provide, and that is artistic unity. This unity gives the opera a sense of constant movement and continual growth of the dramatic situation as well as the arc of the characters. One wouldn’t want to see any of the recitative in Roméo disappear as it adds to that mercurial sense of direction that all operas must have.
Gounod was a gifted melodist with nothing to apologize for. The tunes from this opera may not be as familiar to us as those from Faust or Carmen, but they are just as striking and eminently memorable. The main tune to Roméo’s romance, “Ah, lêve-toi soleil” is a soaring example, as are the main melodic motives in all four of the love duets. It took a bit of courage to include so many duets for the main characters, both from the standpoint of the audience (French audiences were notorious for boring easily) and casting (the tenors and sopranos who tackled the roles of the young lovers), seeing as how singers would surely think immediately how stressful the singing of four cumulative duets could be. But these four pieces are marvelous in their approach to the drama giving us a glimpse into the growth, not only of the characters, but of their relationship.
The composer of Roméo approaches the orchestra in much the same way as other French Romantic composers of the day: light and at times brilliant textures that still allow the voice to shine through, sparing use of brass, counter-themes played by woodwind instruments in order to give interest to primary melodic material, judicious use of harp and percussion (“special effects”) and emphasis on the constant shifting of colors in order to keep the audience’s ear attentive and interested. If Gounod is not quite as sensitive to text as Verdi and his compatriots, he is certainly as attentive to the sonic environment required of every composer to create the impression of a world realistically re-created for the stage. Night is no more beautifully described than in the introductory music and final pages of the balcony scene (Act II), and the Capulet’s masked ball sparkles with rhythmic allusions to dance. Overall the music is a wonderful foil for the story and provides the atmosphere that an operatic treatment of Shakespeare demands.