PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” at the Academy of Music, will star the acclaimed voices of Academy of Vocal Arts graduates and real-life husband and wife duo Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez.

Perez says their marriage does bring a certain context to the performance.

“When an audience knows who you are and your background story, I think it brings a different sensation, the atmosphere created in the theatre,” she notes.

This timeless story of the feuding families has the Montagues and the Capulets as 21st-century major fashion houses.   But Costello says the story is still the same.

“You can update it, put it in the period, make it as modern as you want, everything still has to symbolize what’s happening in Romeo and Juliet,” he said.

Hear the full interview with Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez in this CBS Philly podcast…

For more information go to operaphila.org.

Reported by Karin Phillips, KYW Newsradio 1060.