Why do I have the feeling I forgot something...

This post is one of many that I intend to write about the dumbest characters in all of opera. I would post on Siegfried, but I'm not quite ready to post that yet. The first character on my list of opera's dumbest characters is the friar from Romeo et Julliette by Gounod.

In Shakespeare's version, he was dumb, but in Gounod's, he's just plain stupid. There are a couple of alterations to the classic Shakespeare story that make this friar even more idiotic. In Gounod's version, Romeo knows where to look for Juliet, in the capulet tomb. This information would have had to come from either the Friar or the Nurse, due to the fact that they were the only ones who knew the real plan.

There's a couple of reasons that we can suspect that it was not the Nurse who told Romeo where to find Juliet

1. As a servant of the Capulet family, for her to go out and find Romeo would look suspicious
2. The Nurse would have been a part of the mourning process with the rest of the family, despite the knowledge she had
3. The Nurse didn't even get to explain the plan to Juliet, so why would she be asked to tell Romeo.

For these and others reasons, it is fairly safe to assume that the Friar dropped the ball here. If he had just said (or sang) another sentence to Romeo explaining that Juliet may look dead when he got to her, the whole thing would have ended well.

Furthermore, yet not adding to the stupidity of the Friar, is the fact that with as secret a death as Romeo and Juliet shared, nothing would happen. The feud would just continue. Romeo and Juliet would have truly died in vain.

That is why the Friar deserves the title of being one of the dumbest characters in all of opera.