The “characters’ first experience with death” is this production’s harrowing perspective.Īs a result of this, I found that features of this opera jumped out at me as they never had before. No shadow of mortal illness hangs over her, or her and Rodolfo’s affair, until the third Act and then it hits hard. One of the striking features of this production is that Mimì is quite healthy in the first half. Puccini’s opera tells of four young friends (five, if you count Marcello’s girlfriend Musetta) enjoying their youths, and youthful struggles, in the poorer artistic echelons of Paris (set here at the turn of the 20th century).Ī sixth person (Mimì) enters the scene and she and Rodolfo find a love that is more serious than their peers’ “loves that last as long as a bedroom candle,” to quote the book that the opera was based on: Murger’s “Scenes from Bohemian Life.”īut traditionally, Mimì, who will die, is sick from the start. Many might counter that it’s about young love or, more fully, young love cut short by death, but Kosky’s tighter focus has amazing ramifications for this production which comes to Los Angeles from Berlin’s Komische Oper where the Melbourne-born director is the Intendant. Venue: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, 90012)Īll programs, artists and dates are subject to change.Ĭlick here to go to the main web page for La Bohème.In an incredibly interesting interview with Simon Berger in the program booklet for Los Angeles Opera’s latest production “La Bohème” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, director Barrie Kosky asserts that Puccini’s “La Bohème” is actually about death. Performed in Italian with English supertitlesĮstimated running time: two hours, 30 minutes, including one intermission ‡ Alumnus of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program

† Member of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program Original Lighting Design: Alessandro Carletti*Īrtistic Director, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus: Fernando Malvar-RuizĪssociate Lighting Designer: Marco Philipp* LA Opera has previously presented La Bohème in productions created by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1987) and by Herbert Ross (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2016). World premiere: February 1, 1896, Teatro Regio (Torino, Italy)

Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henry Mürger Click here for a printable PDF of this page.

La boheme la opera