About this Performance

Due to the continuing COVID-19 crisis, all LA Phil-presented concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall have been canceled through June 9, 2021. 

This event has been canceled. 

• We have moved all 2020/21 subscriptions into the 2021/22 season. This will enable subscribers to keep their seats when we return for a full season of music back at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
• Subscriber Add-On tickets can be donated, returned for account credit, or refunded.
• Create Your Own Package tickets can be donated, returned for account credit, or refunded.

Visit this page for the latest updates and to learn more.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone having a more powerful reaction to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet than Hector Berlioz. The composer was utterly devastated when he first witnessed a production, despite the fact that he spoke not a word of English and relied on an ineloquent, garbled French translation. “By the third act, scarcely able to breathe – it was as though an iron hand had gripped me by the heart – I knew that I was lost,” he recalled in his memoir. Inspired by how he felt, Berlioz created an innovative and risky choral symphony.  

Though the work features three solo singers and a chorus, nearly two-thirds of the score is purely instrumental. Berlioz didn’t attempt to recreate the iconic narrative. Neither the words of Romeo nor Juliet are sung, ever. What he instead created is an intensely personal reaction to the play’s deeper meanings, through depictions of those characters and themes that he found most meaningful.

Programs, artists, dates, prices, and availability subject to change. Ticket limits may apply. All sales are final.