Royal Academy Opera: Béatrice et Bénédict

Hector Berlioz became infatuated with Shakespeare after seeing Harriet Smithson (to whom he was later disastrously married) play Juliet and Ophelia in 1827. He devoured all the plays, and could quote from them at length. His huge choral symphony Roméo et Juliette (‘the supreme drama of my life’) is one consequence of this productive obsession; and another is Béatrice et Bénédict, his delicious adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing. Here Shakespeare’s most unlikely pair, the intellectually sparring Beatrice and Benedict, are tricked by their friends into revealing their true feelings for one another. Royal Academy Opera is thrilled to welcome back two of the most distinguished practitioners in the operatic world: conductor Sir Colin Davis, arguably the greatest living interpreter of Berlioz, and director John Copley. The opera will be sung in French (Berlioz’s own text), and the interlinking dialogue will be spoken in Shakespeare’s original lines.