A 'ROMEO ET JULIETTE' THAT SIZZLES WITH PASSION.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

GOT SEX?

The Los Angeles Opera does - at least while its new production of Charles Gounod's ``Romeo et Juliette'' runs. The work had its company premiere Saturday night, with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon as the star-crossed lovers. And their mad, sometimes unclothed, carnality was merely the most memorable of the production's many charms.

If sex on the operatic stage doesn't sound appealing, think again. Netrebko, singing Juliette for the first time, is the comely Russian soprano who last season made an unforgettable impression on local audiences singing the lead in ``Lucia di Lammermoor.'' You might also know her from a subsequent ``60 Minutes'' segment that favored her physique over her soaring, elastic voice. Though he has appeared with the company before, Villazon - a hunky Mexican tenor whose bedroom eyes and raven curls augment a buoyant, ardent sound - is less well-known. But fame seems in the offing or so recent lavish profiles suggest.

Seeing them on stage as the young lovers originally conceived by Shakespeare called to mind Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, the operatic superstars who also sing these roles and who in December injected similar appeal into L.A. Opera's otherwise tired ``La Boheme.'' But unlike Alagna and Gheorghiu, Netrebko and Villazon are not married in real life, making their palpable desire on stage even more impressive.

Of course, ``Romeo et Juliette'' is about more than surging hormones. Gounod - whose best-known work by far remains ``Faust'' - was a stylish composer capable of great musical refinement. Those qualities clearly resonated with conductor Frederic Chaslin, who in his L.A. Opera debut led the orchestra in a performance that was both supportive of the singers and distinguished in its own right.

Sensitivity - this time to logic and good taste - was also displayed by the production team led by director Ian Judge, a company regular. John Gunter's sets, built for the occasion, were movable, multitiered steel frames that variously evoked interiors and exteriors with equal effectiveness. With props kept to a minimum, they were easily manipulated by dexterous stagehands into ballrooms, bedrooms, chapels, crypts, gardens, courtyards and town squares. It was left to Tim Goodchild's sumptuous costumes to convey the era, which by their look, harmlessly moved the action several centuries forward to the mid-1800s.

It was perhaps too much to hope that the opera would be sung with true Gallic flair; that doesn't even happen in France anymore. Yet the absence didn't make this production any less compelling. Indeed, baritone Marc Barrard (as Mercutio) brought infectious frisson to his Queen Mab aria, and tenor Florian Laconi (Tybalt), soprano Anna-Maria Panzarella (Stephano), bass-baritone Simone Alberghini (Lord Capulet) and, especially, bass Reinhard Hagen (Friar Laurence) all fully inhabited their roles and sang with precision, enthusiasm and gusto.

But this was Villazon and Netrebko's show. And from her first-act entrance, as a stunning vision in white, one could hardly take one's eyes off the pair. That was particularly true in the second and fourth acts. In the former, Villazon scaled a fence as prelude to singing the opera's most famous tune, ``Ah leve-toi soleil,'' with Netrebko joining him for the subsequent balcony scene. But the markedly erotic bedroom scene two acts later was even more gripping, with the couple singing passionately while nearly naked. Rarely have supertitles been more superfluous.

Yet it was in the fifth act that the couple reached new heights artistically. Adjusting Shakespeare for the operatic stage, librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carre have Juliette awaking from her faked death before Romeo dies from the poison he has drunk in response. This allows for a final, intense duet, which Netrebko and Villazon sang with remarkable feeling. Their death tableau, following Juliette's suicide by dagger, is indelible.

ROMEO ET JULIETTE - Four stars

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Feb. 9, 12 and 17; 2 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 20.

Tickets: $25 to $190. [phone] or www.losangelesopera.com.

In a nutshell Two fast-rising stars and an unusually thoughtful production make Gounod's take on Shakespeare's best-known love story a must-see event.

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Romeo (Rolando Villazon) grieves over his beloved Juliette (Anna Netrebko in the L.A. Opera production of Shakespeare's classic story of star-crossed lovers.