Aria of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette)

Gounod returned to Shakespeare with the librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, and the opera opened at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 27 April 1867, timed for the crowds of the Exposition Universelle; it was played nearly a hundred times in its first season. The Opéra-Comique and then the Opéra took it over, each house requiring changes, among them recitatives and a ballet. The structure is unusual in resting on four duets for the two lovers, one in each of the central acts, so that the drama advances through their meetings rather than through the feud surrounding them.