Romeo likens Juliet to the sun, but glaring fluorescent light -- and embalming fluid and a cadaver on a dressing table -- help to tell their story this time.

	David Bachman Soprano Lyubov Petrova as Juliet brought a lightness of tone that served the music well in "Romeo & Juliet." Click photo for larger image. Pittsburgh Opera's 'Romeo & Juliet' Where: Benedum Center, Downtown. When: 7 p.m. Tuesday; 8 p.m. Nov. 17; 2 p.m. Nov. 19. Tickets: $16.50-$130.50; 412-456-6666.

The Pittsburgh Opera's radical take on Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet," which opened Saturday night at the Benedum Center, updates the tale from Renaissance Verona to America of the 1980s.

That in itself is nothing new. Shakespeare has been donning different suits for years now. But the intriguing twist comes with a Mafia element seeping throughout the setting of the action in a gloomy funeral parlor that seems a front for illicit activity by the finely dressed Capulets. An automobile hearse dominates one scene, while coffins are strewn about and punk Montagues loiter.

With the setting, directors Olivier Deloeuil and Jean-Philippe Clarac wish to show how death surrounds the young lovers, but their conception also connects to the mob families, criminal minds and forensic science dominating our films and TV. It's not that we can't understand a "Romeo and Juliet" set in the past, but that certain elements have a bigger impact when laid out in our own contemporary terms.

But for every "Sopranos" element, the real soprano, Lyubov Petrova as Juliet, and Massimo Giordano as Romeo, kept the focus where it needed to be: on them. While neither have quintessentially French voices, they have lightness of tone that served the music and the young characters well. Both crafted their lines in extraordinary detail. Even when Petrova was incorporating an intricate miming sequence while singing "Je veux vivre" she was able to contour the aria artfully. Not resting on the laurels of his silvery, Italianate timbre, Massimo acted through the voice through the evening. In addition to being star-crossed lovers, both are star singers in the making.

The irony of a contemporary staging is that it requires greater suspension of disbelief than a traditional one. It's easy to buy into a typical opera set in some bygone time or fantastic place because you already have thrown reality out the window. However, a realistic production instead forces you to suspend your incredulity again and again, making a high standard of believability important. Saturday, those elements that failed this stood out more than they typically would, such as why no one in the cast acknowledged the rain falling on stage in the fight scene, or how it worked that Juliet appeared to be in a storage closet, but somehow was outside, in the balcony scene.

Ultimately, in any updated production, such as this one from Spoleto Festival with sets by Carol Bailey, you still have to allow for a few incongruities. After all, Gounod himself substantially altered Shakespeare, allowing for the two lovers to sing a swan song at the end. I think with a few tweaks and without a few opening night glitches, the production could really sing. However, it was still fascinating to watch it unfold. Much of the action flowed naturally and the fact that you didn't know what was coming in such a familiar plot was half the fun.

The other half was comprised of excellent minor characters and a resplendent performance by the orchestra under conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak. Craig Verm was again impressive on the Benedum stage. His Mercutio was a winning mix of insouciance and insolence with a superb grasp of the French. Myrna Paris doesn't have much to sing in her role as Gertrude but did so with flair, and then added hilarious flourishes to the action. Charles Robert Austin captured the complex role of Father Laurent with sincerity and a sumptuous bass-baritone. The chorus sang with vigor and good diction.

Brent Stater's Duke was well-played as a politician, and rage spilled out of the gaze of Arthur Espiritu as Tybalt. Chester Patton (Capulet), Daniel Billings (Paris) and Jennifer Holloway (Stephano) were solid, but not spectacular.

Conductor Joel-Hornak told me that for him, French music should sound like water, and his marshalling of the pit orchestra accomplished that. A lush sound emerged that had energy when called for.

This production doesn't quite make you an offer you can't refuse, but it is a captivating new telling of the tale.