Gounod's 'Romeo' staged as fashion war

With its many moving parts, opera should never be declared a failure on the basis of its production. Though not the most important component, it's the most obvious, which is probably why the Opera Company of Philadelphia's Romeo et Juliette drew such a tepid opening-night response Friday in a production updating the story to today's fashion world.

The so-so Gounod opera has just enough beautiful (though not always dramatically compelling) music to warrant a hearing, particularly with an attractive, vocally appropriate cast - certainly the case with soprano Ailyn Perez and tenor Stephen Costello, who enjoy extra cachet for having come of age at the Academy of Vocal Arts, and who now have the stage savvy to cope with much of what any given high-concept production could throw at them.

Both sing in credible French, and Perez is the sort of singer who finds the soul of a character no matter how thinly drawn it is - even if her lyric soprano is growing out of coloratura roles like Juliette. Costello used slightly worrisome vocal tricks in Act I, but he also knows how to excite audiences with his brilliant sound and attenuated phrases at any given climax. Jacques Lacombe drew solid, stylistically responsible playing from the pit.

How could any production get in the way of such virtues? Whether or not you could go with the Montagues and Capulets as warring fashion houses, the main problem with director Manfred Schweigkofler's concept wasn't its look. Schweigkofler created alluring stage pictures with Nora Veneri's set design, the center of which was a winding staircase that could lead anywhere or nowhere. The Act I runway show, with clothes designed by students from Drexel University, Moore College of Art and Design, and Philadelphia University, was diverting fun.

However, the blocking didn't allow maximum vocal projection, and as easily as Perez carried off the fashion-model thing, she was powerless over the laughter inspired by her sleeping potion's arrival in a martini glass. The impact of her wedding-ceremony collapse was ruined by the quick appearance of paparazzi. These details were hardly necessary; nothing would be lost and much gained by giving them the heave-ho.