Gounod's opera on Shakespeare's depiction of teenage love was performed by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday evening February 17th. The production was staged by Ian Judge. If you remember my admonition to be wary of opera directors from the EU, you'll be relieved to learn that his staging of the opera was not dreadful – just a little dumb. For reasons that will remain inscrutable he moved the scene from renaissance Verona to 19th century Paris, though Tim Goodchild's costumes suggested Ruritania. The swordfight in Act III was devoid of swords – not even one. First there were fisticuffs, then knives, and finally Roméo snatched a pistol from a super and shot Tybalt. The observers of the fighting were carrying umbrellas straight out of Caillebotte's Paris: A Rainy Day, which probably ruled out Ruritania.

 Dr Neil Kurtzman

Another dumb idea was making Act IV, in Juliette's bedroom, into a nude scene. That Judge had young and attractive performers in the title roles prevented the scene from total disaster, but there was a lot of frantic grabbing of sheets in an effort to prevent the piece from turning into the Full Monty. Roméo cheated, however, by wearing briefs. Juliette appeared totally nude from what I could see between the sheets.

But Judge's dumbest idea was to go nonstop from Act I into Act II. (There was only one intermission, between Act III and IV.) The lack of a pause meant that the latecomers who were allowed into the auditorium after Act I stormed in like a reenactment of the Oklahoma land rush. The ensuing stampede drowned out the beautiful music that opens the second act. The retards also obscured the stage and stepped on a lot of toes.

The sets, by John Gunter, were mainly four three-level sets of girders which were moved around during the performance mainly to show that they were mobile. Mr Gunter did concede a bed without which the nude scene would have been even more problematic.

But one goes to Roméo et Juliette for only two reasons - Roméo and Juliette. Anna Netrebko was Juliette. She is currently tied with Angela Gheorghiu for the Lina Cavalieri Prize for world's most beautiful soprano. Vocally, however, she is not as polished as Mrs Alagna. She had a tough time with her entrance line and sang "Je veux vivre" well, but without the abandon the aria requires and which she showed later. Netrebko has a beautiful voice which does best in moments of passion. The opera's four love duets showed her at her fiery best. How her career will progress after the novelty of her extraordinary good looks passes is hard to predict. Right now the audience is wild about her.

Rolando Villazón was almost perfect (he's short) as Roméo. He has good looks, a trim figure, youth, and the best lyric tenor I've heard in 30 years. His tone is beautiful and effortlessly produced over his entire range. "Ah! lève-toi soleil" received a deserved ovation. His high notes are bright, focused, and take on more amplitude, without sounding forced, as he goes up the staff. He maintains full vocal support from loud to very soft. His should be a remarkable career. Several listeners have noted that he sounds like Domingo did in the seventies. I can understand why they say this, he has a creamy tone and bright high notes, but I think he sounds most like Rolando Villazón; once his voice is in your memory it will be instantly recognizable. The only tenor I can think of that might come close to him as Roméo is his incomprehensibly neglected countryman Fernando de la Mora.

A lot was asked of Villazón. He had to repeatedly climb up and down the girders. I feared he might misstep and prematurely end the performance. He had to sing while carrying Netrebko. He's lucky Zinka Milanov is no longer around. And finally, there was that stupid nude scene. No tenor should be forced to sing without his pants on.

The rest of the cast while adequate was not memorable. Marc Barrard got through the Queen Mab song without mishap. Anna-Maria Panzarella sang Stephano. She did about as well as one can do with "Que fais-tu, blanche touterelle". Florian Làconi has a good comprimario tenor and was appropriately malevolent as Tybalt. Frédéric Chaslin conducted well and his orchestra played very well.

The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats 3197 and exemplifies an important difference between American and European opera houses. The former are much bigger than the latter and present a new challenge for singers who grew up in small theaters. While the Los Angeles opera house is much bigger than anything found in Europe, the Met and Lyric Opera of Chicago play in venues much larger than the Chandler. Small voiced singers need to be very careful when they perform in America's mammoth opera houses. Villazón sounded fine from the 11th row. I suspect he was easily heard in the last row of the top balcony, but I can't be sure. A note of caution for those contemplating attending a performance at the Chandler - the screens for the supertitles are positioned such that cervical subluxation is a real risk if you look at them for more than two seconds.

Finally, the Chandler pavilion is just north of Frank Gehry's new Walt Disney Concert Hall – the new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The house was dark when we were there so we didn't see it from the inside. Outside it's similar to his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and would be out of place in most American cities. But since there is no place to be out of in LA it looks fine.