The story of the young lovers from Verona is widely known all over the world, and you’ll hardly find a person who couldn’t retell the plot of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. However, the libretto of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830), written by Felice Romani, was based not only on the play but also on Matteo Bandello’s novella Giulietta e Romeo. That’s why the opera’s plot is visibly different from the classical one and may surprise the spectators.

The scene is set in the 18th century a midst the turf war of the Guelphs (oppositionists who wanted to limit the Holy Roman Emperor’s authority in Italy and to enhance the influence of the Pope)and the Ghibellines (the Emperor’s supporters). The Capuletti are members of the former, whereas the Montecchi support the latter. There are some peculiarities about the characters: Tebaldo is not Giulietta’s cousin, but her fiancé; Lorenzo, an ally and guardian of Romeo and Giulietta, is a doctor, not a priest.

It is not the libretto that is the strength of the opera, but Bellini’s fascinating music. I Montecchi e i Capuleti is the breaking point before his best works, La sonnambula and Norma. The magnificent “endless” melodies, sophisticated orchestration and bright choral scenes are splendid, but the composer’s most interesting invention is the duet of Giulietta and Romeo, which he designed for a soprano and a mezzo-soprano. This decision in the middle of the 19th century was not only a nod to the operatic practice of the 17–19th centuries when main roles were sung by castratos, but also the composer’s deliberate intent to show the spiritual affinity of Romeo and Giulietta amid the antagonistic world full of woes and deaths.