Giacomo Puccini

La bohème

- Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

SUMMARY

Puccini’s heart-rending love story and gloriously inventive lyricism endures as one of the opera world’s finest achievements. For Opera Australia, the work holds an important place in its history and in the heart of its audiences.

Director Gale Edwards’ ravishing production, with marvel-making sets by designer Brian Thomson and sensual, daring costumes by Julie Lynch, transports the poet Rodolfo and the young seamstress Mimì from the Latin Quarter of 1830s Paris to Berlin in the 1930s. It is here where the high-spirited bohemians revel in the exotic seductions of the Spiegeltent. Romance and tragedy are heightened when the rise of the Nazis threatens to brutally sweep away the glittering pleasures and prizes of Café Momus.

The cast is oustanding. Soprano Nicole Car makes her much anticipated Sydney role debut as Mimì and the magnificent Italian tenor Gianluca Terranova, who shone as Alfredo in Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour – La Traviata, stars as Rodolfo. Their youthfulness and chemistry will bring a blaze of passion to the immortal love story set against the backdrop of a fast-changing world. The acclaimed Christian Badea, who studied with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, returns to conduct the enduringly popular opera.

Want to know more? Read the synposis (the story of the opera), an interview with chorus member Tom Hamilton, or 'Backstage with the Bohemians' - a series of behind-the-scenes blogs from the rehearsals for the premiere of this production in 2011. Or, listen to Ji-Min Park (Rodolfo) and Takesha Meshé Kizart (Mimì) perform 'O soave fanciulla' from the same production.

What are the critics saying?

"Thrilling new production of the world's most performed opera." Sunday Age

"The ideal first-time experience for the opera novice." Sydney Morning Herald

"Opera Australia's La bohème is a superb night's entertainment." ★★★★★ Herald Sun