Although “Romeo Juliet” is about a forbidden union, Park City Opera and Ballet West II are making this summer’s production of Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” a formidable partnership. For the first time, these two Utah-based performing arts companies will take the Eccles Cente r for the Performing Arts stage on Aug. 21 and 23 tDancers of Ballet West II, Ballet West’s pre-professional company, will add life to the city of Verona while opera artists perform the libretto of one of Shakespeare’s beloved tales, said Park City Opera Artistic Director Benjamin Beckman. “Our interest in adding dancers is two-fold,” he said. “The first is that the opera takes place in this city, and so often opera is interested in constructing a place for the audience, before the story unfolds,” he said. “For example, in (Georges Bizet’s) ‘Carmen,’ there are five scenes that have nothing to do with the plot, (but) show what Seville is like.” While ‘Roméo et Juliette’ is not structured in quite the same way, the first thing that audiences see and hear is a sonnet performed by the whole cast and chorus, Beckman said. “They sing to the audience, explaining what (the audience) is about to see,” he said. “Then we are thrust into this incredible ball scene. So, obviously, there’s this sense of wanting dancers to dance a grand ball we see.” The second reason why dancers are paramount in the production comes later in the opera, on the streets of Verona, Beckman said. “During the scene where Mercutio and Tybalt have their duel, there’s this sense of life that dancers can provide in constructing the feeling of a place,” he said. Michael Waldrop, Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy’s contemporary program manager, and manager of the current contemporary performing ensemble at the Ballet West Academy, will choreograph the pieces, said Park City Opera Executive Director Lena Goldstein. “We’re pre-rehearsal, so we don’t know what it will look like,” she said. “But (the dancers) will be participating in the tracks and learning the show.” Ballet West II perform a scene from Pamela Robinson-Harris’ “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Ballet West’s pre-professional company will collaborate with Park City Opera in August for the production of Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” that will run Aug. 21 and 23 at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts in Park City. Credit: Photo courtesy of Lauren Wattenburg Lisl Wangermann, Park City Opera’s development director, who will direct the production, has been talking with Waldrop about the role of movement and when they will appear. “As a director, this is like doubling the number of colors in a painter’s palette,” Wangermann said in a statement because she was out of town. “Dance gives us another way to tell the story and allows us to express things that the libretto does not say. I cannot wait to work with Michael Waldrop to create a fresh presentation of this timeless story.” The opera-ballet partnership’s origins started with a phone call with Allison DeBona, Ballet West Academy’s Peggy Bergman Park City Campus principal, last autumn, Goldstein said. “We had essentially an exploratory call with her telling her about our upcoming season, and that eventually led to working with Ballet West II,” she said. Working with dancers is nothing new for opera companies, according to Goldstein. “This opera was written and premiered in 1867, and at that time, if you looked at that era of French Romantic Opera, one thing that defines it is that dance was largely inseparable from opera,” she said. “So, it’s not that we’re reuniting dance with singing in this particular work. We’re honoring the show as it was initially conceived. Dance belongs in opera historically and artistically, especially in this particular show.” Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute concurs. “I am a huge opera fan and have loved it my entire life,” he said in a statement. “I am thrilled that our second company dancers will have this marvelous opportunity to take part in an artform that is, in fact, where ballet was born.” Park City Opera and Ballet West are just the top of the tower of Utah-based artists who will be a part of the production, Goldstein said. “We are involving over 80 artists, and a dozen are Utah-based dancers,” she said. “We have a Utah-based costume designer, and we have a dozen local choristers — Utah-based professional singers, making up the ensemble.” The production will also feature 12 principal singers coming in from around the country and the world, and five of them are local, including Nicole Heinen, who will perform the role of Juliet, Beckman said. “We cast Nicole Heinen following national auditions,” he said. “She came and auditioned for us live, and we were completely blown away.” Heinen has performed with the Florentine Opera Company, which is Milwaukee’s major company, and the Pensacola Opera, Beckman said. “We heard her, and we are so lucky that she is a good fit for us,” he said. “She recently moved to Salt Lake City, and her husband, (Alex Mayon,) is the acting principal trumpet with the Utah Symphony. And not only do we have Nicole, we have her husband involved as well.”  Mayone is one of 40 musicians who will perform in the opera, Goldstein said. “Almost all of them are local,” she said. Beckman also looks forward to working with Patrick Bessenbacher, who is cast as Romeo. While the tenor is from New York, Beckman has worked with him a number of times. “First (was) on a production of (Gaetano Donizetti’s) ‘La Fille du Régiment’ in Middlebury, Vermont, where he sang the role of Antonio, and for the second time was in the America premiere of an opera by Antonio Salieri, ‘La Scuola de’ Gelosi’ — ‘The School of Jealousy’ with the Pacific Opera Project in Los Angeles,” Beckman said. “He auditioned for us virtually this year, and the thing that I have learned from him and what I respect so much from him is that he is such an incredibly consistent singer who throws himself into the characters he performs, with an incredible vocal fortitude as well.”  Rehearsals will start soon, and they will be held, in part, at the Peggy Bergmann Park City Campus space, Goldstein said. “This is a true collaboration between Utah companies that is taking place in Park City,” she said. “We’re excited for this true local collaboration.” While “Roméo et Juliette” is a few months away, Park City Opera is busy with other appearances in the meantime, Goldstein said. “I think right now we have 22 public events, and 15 of them are free to attend,” she said. “We have a couple more in the works, and we will do pop-ups for specific community organizations all summer long — the Newcomers Club of Greater Park City, the Rotary clubs, Temple Har Shalom.” Goldstein has found community gatherings such as these provide a “no-barrier way” of introducing a kind of art that many people have not experienced before. “If you have an organization that is used to welcoming guest speakers, Park City Opera is more than happy to come give a sneak peak of what we’re up to,” she said. “(These) will hopefully make as warm and inviting a culture as possible around opera and our larger productions.”For information about Park City Opera and its 2026 season, visit parkcityopera.org. For information about Ballet West, Ballet West II and the Frederick Quinney Ballet West Academy, visit balletwest.org. The post Park City Opera and Ballet West II unite for ‘Roméo et Juliette’ appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less