Shakespeare+vs.+Bellini

~ Willa Cather**
 * "There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before."

Believe it or not, the tale of two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet was not originally from William Shakespeare. Arthur Brooke wrote a play called Romeus and Juliet in 1562. Twenty years later, William Painter retold the story in prose. In Renaissance Italy, the story was familiar to artists and musicians, but the Shakespeare version was not well known until the late 1800's - much later than Bellini's opera.

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet supposedly took place in Verona in the early 1300's. The Romeo and Juliet story had traveled across the continent and been retold in various forms. It has been immortalized in opera.

//l Capuleti e i Montecchi// (The Capulets and the Montagues) is the story of Romeo and Juliet, based on medieval Italian sources rather than Shakespeare's play. In this version, the Capulets and the Montagues belong to rival political factions known as the Guelphs and Ghibellines. (ie. Capulets = Guelphs, Montagues = Ghibellines)

[|l Capuleti e i Montecchi - Synopsis] Click here to learn more about the storyline of this opera.

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