La Boheme

Overview

The whole world loves a love story, and this my friends is a corker.

Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme was originally set in 1840s Paris about a group of struggling artists and their experiences of love, friendship, and heartbreak. In this superb new rendition of the story, director Gale Edwards has transported the story’s characters, including lovers Rodolpho and Mimi, to 1930s Berlin, where political volatility provides a dark backdrop to the glamorous Speigeltent setting of this operatic tale of infatuation. Basically though, this remains a passionate story about love bohemian style.

Rodolpho is a struggling writer hanging with his crowd of equally poor but creatively adventurous artist types. Fate runs him head first into the intoxicating Mimi. They fall in love. Big, swirling, torrential amor. The heartbreaking ending, which I shall not reveal, only adds to the bitter-sweetness of this timeless and universally relatable narrative. In the current production, designers Brian Thomson and Julie Lynch dazzle us visually while the operatic gifts of two of the most exciting young singers in opera today add the finishing touches — Takesha Meshé Kizart as Mimì and Ji-Min Park as Rodolfo.

Whether you're an opera aficionado or you've never thought to attend in your whole life, you will most definitely be swept away by this magically moving production. If you’ve ever been in love or lost it, how could you not?