I Capuleti e i Montecchi
by Butler School of Music

Oct. 16 - Oct. 25

Douglas Kinney Frost, conductor

Yingmeige Xiong, stage director

Sung in Italian with English with supertitles.

I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is an Italian opera (tragedia lirica) in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo and based on the play of the same name by Luigi Scevola written in 1818, thus an Italian source rather than taken directly from Shakespeare's play.

Bellini was persuaded to write the opera for the 1830 Carnival season at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with only a month and a half available for composition. He succeeded by appropriating a large amount of music previously written for his unsuccessful opera Zaira.

The first performance of I Capuleti e i Montecchi took place on 11 March 1830

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I Capuleti e i Montecchi
by Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani
Butler School of Music

October 16 - 25, 2026

McCullough Theatre, Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin