and with narration by Terence Knapp, came from three very different genres: a dramatic symphony by Berlioz from 1839, a fantasy overture by Tchaikovsky from 1870, and a ballet suite by Prokofiev from 1935.

The most warmly received was, of course, Tchaikovsky's overture. The "of course" is partly because of its famous melody that everyone knows and loves, but also because it is primarily a musical work, self-contained and built for the concert hall.

Rather than retelling the story, Tchaikovsky distilled the basic elements of love and conflict into a compact, one-movement form. Those hearing the overture for the first time are caught up in its dramatic sweep and heart-rending melodies, while those long familiar with it marvel anew at its details and at Tchaikovsky's compositional skill. Very, very few composers can rival Tchaikovsky's melodic gift or ability to sustain a long, slow build into a cathartic climax.

The Berlioz and Prokofiev works are both less well-known and too large to perform complete in the same concert.

Berlioz, ever one for grand gestures, set his "Romeo and Juliet" as a huge "dramatic symphony," a la Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for orchestra, chorus and soloists comprising four large movements plus finale, subdivided into 12 parts and lasting more than an hour and a half. Thankfully, the Symphony presented only two of the orchestral subsections: the magical fairy world of the "Queen Mab Scherzo," and the velvety-summer-night "Love Scene."

For his version, Prokofiev created a full-length ballet, a series of musical scenes meant to accompany the story as told through dance. Maestro Wong conducted nine excerpts from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" Suites, a "suite" being a collection of scenes that offer a pleasant arrangement for the concert hall, but that neither convey nor follow the storyline.

Narrator Terence Knapp explained that he "selected, with the maestro's consent, narratives (from Shakespeare's play) that most closely describe what is found in the music." Since the pieces followed no narrative order, Knapp's selections verbally illustrated the music and provided context for the audience.

Some selections were expected, such as Mercutio's "Queen Mab" poem leading to Berlioz's "Queen Mab Scherzo" or Shakespeare's prologue ("Two households, both alike in dignity ... ) to introduce the opening Prokofiev scene, "Montagues and Capulets."

Others were more subtle, and cleverly chosen. Knapp read Friar Laurence's confession/explanation from Shakespeare's final scene, for example, to introduce Tchaikovsky's overture. Both passage and overture summarized the story as a whole and used Friar Laurence as the point of reference (the overture begins and ends with Friar Laurence's church music).

Knapp's resonant tone carried well throughout, but in a large hall with hundreds of bodies to absorb the sound, individual words were clear only to those who were intimately familiar with the text. During intermission, several in the audience remarked that it would have been nice to hear him more clearly. Management must have heard the comments, because Knapp was miked in the second half, and although Blaisdell's miking had its usual problems with "pops" and unevenness, it was a relief to be able to hear every syllable.

Knapp's readings contributed so much to the performance, that it seemed a shame he did not play a bigger role in the second half.

Of Prokofiev's nine scenes, Knapp introduced only three. Some scenes were immediately recognizable, even to those only passingly familiar with the tale: the warring families, Romeo and Juliet's balcony and death scenes, Mercutio's and Tybalt's deaths, the masked ball. But some scenes could have appeared anywhere in the ballet: "Folk Dance," "Madrigal," "Dance," "A Scene," etc. It would have helped to have narratives place these scenes in the audience's imaginations.