The site-specific staging of Bellini's opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi was invented specifically to be performed in the courtyard of the Smolny Cathedral as part of the open-air festival All together Opera. The two Veronese families were presented as two criminal clans — the street hooligans Montecchi painted graffiti on walls and committed petty offenses, while the soldierly men of the Capuleti clan engaged in corporate racketeering and hid their guns under expensive suits.

The production used hip-hop aesthetics, graffiti, breakdancing, and had performers on stage wearing bulletproof vests with Kalashnikov assault rifles and a service dog. This modernization, while seemingly extravagant, was in fact very organic to the famous story of the two lovers. Romeo and Juliet became closer and clearer to today's audience, and their love confessions sounded as sincere as they did seven centuries ago.