ROB DAVIDSON
Isaac Hickox-Young and Billie Wyatt portray Romeo and Juliet with New Jersey Symphony at NJPAC in Newark.
New Jersey Symphony took a nice departure from the usual symphonic showpieces, and created what is sure to be a standout of the 2025-26 season. High drama and enchanting music mixed freely and fiercely at the Symphony’s “Romeo and Juliet” concerts, which took place from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 at NJPAC in Newark and The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.
The lively and imaginative performance, led by music director Xian Zhang, was presented in partnership with The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, giving concertgoers the best of both worlds: orchestral brilliance by two Russian giants and William Shakespeare’s powerful poetry.
STNJ actors performed excerpts from the work set to musical selections from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suites Nos. 1-3, which brought new depth and emotion to the work, plus Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, making for a thematically integrated program.
It is one of the Symphony’s many dynamic offerings in a big season that celebrates 10 years of leadership under Zhang. They are using the milestone to revisit meaningful partnerships with other New Jersey cultural institutions, including STNJ, which they last united with during the 2015-16 season, in a “Midsummer Night’s Dream” concert conducted by Jacques Lacombe.
ROB DAVIDSON
Actors portray “Romeo and Juliet” characters with New Jersey Symphony at NJPAC.
The 2025-26 season features genre-bending programs to entice new and emerging audiences, and Shakespeare’s iconic tale of star-crossed lovers has the power to do that with its timeless and universal themes. The story has been canonized in classical music for centuries, including popular operas by Charles Gounod (“Roméo et Juliette”) and Vincenzo Bellini (“I Capuleti e I Montecchi”), among others.
The symphonic go-to is Tchaikovsky’s late-19th century Fantasy Overture, famous for its memorable Love Theme played by lush strings. The work vividly captures the sunny Verona landscapes and the rival Capuleti and Montecchi households, making it the perfect piece to set the program’s tone.
Zhang illuminated the work’s fiery drama with brilliance and beauty. In her determined hands, it was all rhythmic finesse and nicely graded balance, with cool restraint used in the battle scenes. Softly colored strings and featherweight textures kept above the schmaltz that the Love Theme sometimes suggests. Tragedy was not dwelled upon; shadows passed over like a summer storm.
Musicians moved into more of an accompaniment role for the Prokofiev centerpiece, which was originally written in the mid-1930s as a full-length ballet set to Shakespeare’s play. The three orchestral suites taken from the ballet score are not completely in chronological order so it has become a longstanding tradition for conductors to choose around six to 10 of the 20 movements and rearrange them in concordance with the plot.
New Jersey Symphony’s “Romeo and Juliet” graphic.
As noted in the program (the cover featured a strong graphic of blood-soaked, crossed swords), Zhang mixed and matched movements in a way that she felt best suited the actors and highlighted Prokofiev’s skillful character studies. With so many moving parts, it couldn’t have been an easy task, but she still managed to hit all the main orchestral beats without sacrificing the emotion.
Here and there, the music was slightly tweaked to ease transitions between the actors and musicians. For example, the short, percussive, military-style march that introduces the “Masks” suite was clipped a couple of measures and softly muted so that Juliet’s “My only love sprung from my only hate” line would be audible. It is traditionally played moderato marciale: militant and strict.
The play, too, was carefully condensed to suit the suites. The actors — a mix of newcomers and seasoned favorites, some of whom doubled up on roles — all had the range and presence central to the drama, from the tender and sorrowful death scenes to the nimble and athletic swordplay in the “Death of Tybalt” movement, made thrilling by fight director Rod Kinter.
Some members had performed “Romeo and Juliet” in the fall at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre on the campus of Drew University in Madison, including real-life couple Isaac Hickox-Young as Romeo and Billie Wyatt as Juliet.
To open the work, the entire cast came onto the stage and recited the prologue (“Two households, both alike in dignity”) in turns over the “Montagues and Capulets” movement. At later points in the show, sometimes the verse was spoken without any musical accompaniment; at other times, the actors pantomimed over the music or kept offstage.
ROB DAVIDSON
Clark Carmichael and Hassiem Muhammad portray Mercutio and Tybalt with New Jersey Symphony at NJPAC.
The action, overseen by Brian B. Crowe (in his 31st season with STNJ and his third as artistic director), was never staid. Actors came up and down the main aisles; spoke from podiums at the back of the stage; and used a moveable set piece that served as the wedding altar as well as the matrimonial bed and a tomb for both Tybalt (played by Hassiem Muhammad as a hot-headed and fleet-footed antagonist) and the doomed lovers. Dino Curia made a dependable Benvolio.
Humor sometimes came through wordplay. The Bard would approve. At the NJPAC performance on Jan. 29, Juliet’s celebrated balcony scene literally took place in a side box balcony on the grand tier, lit up with a clear spotlight overlaid with leafy cutouts (by lighting designer Jason Flamos) to evoke the sunlight of the Capulets’ orchard.
In the play, Mercutio (a heroic Clark Carmichael, who also made a commanding Prince) answers Tybalt’s call to fight and boasts about using his “fiddlestick,” meaning his sword. Here, during the “Madrigal” movement, the “fiddlestick” alluded to a violin bow: Mercutio walked over to the strings section and took a bow out of a violinist’s hand, jokingly brandishing it like a sword.
Atmosphere was set mainly through vivid period costumes by Daniel Ciba, which included capes and feathered caps; tall boots and long gloves; and crushed velvet and gold brocade. Handheld props included a fan for Nurse (a strong but vulnerable Alison Weller) and a prayer book for Friar Laurence (a kindly Earl Baker Jr., who also brought noble bearing as Lord Montague.)
Zhang and the musicians took a flexible approach, exploring both the melodramatic Italianate flavors and Prokofiev’s quirky and modernistic sensibilities. Color was used with great decorum in the somber second half, beginning with the death of Tybalt, surrounded by the mourning Capulets, including an emotionally convincing Lady Capulet (Jesmille Darbouze) and Lord Capulet (David Shih).
As the tradition goes, Zhang and concertmaster Eric Wyrick shared a fist bump at the final curtain call. Usually it is triumphant and celebratory in nature. This time, it was done with great warmth and compassion, and perfectly fit the mood. It reaffirmed that symphonic music has not lost the power to stir the emotions.
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