My question about Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s new ballet, Romeo and Juliet, might seem polite next to my wife’s. Seeing the cavalier with Shakespeare’s top billing shortchanged on soloing opportunities, I inquired in my print review, “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” Sue’s question was more blunt and pertinent: why? Why am I dragging her to ANOTHER Romeo and Juliet?

If you cover the performing arts beat in Charlotte, you might indeed be saying enough is enough. Opera Carolina was first out of the gate this season with Gounod’s opera last October – about two months before the Met opera screened a live HD version at the Regal Stonecrest theater in Piper Glen and up in Concord. That was only part of this season’s deluge. New Jersey Shakespeare brought an R&J to UNC Charlotte in February after Charlotte Symphony reprised Berlioz’ “Love Scene from R&J” for the second time in the past two seasons.

Nor is the onslaught over. We’re back to the balcony again in a couple of weeks when Collaborative Arts brings its Romeo and Juliet to the Uptown Green beginning on June 5.

Can we count on an R&J moratorium for the 2008-09 season? Don’t bet on it.