The Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow brings its production of one of Giacomo Puccini’s most famous operas to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and will run from November 30th to December 4th.
Famous Irish soprano Celine Byrne reprises her role as Mimi, having begun her career six years ago with Scottish Opera as the very same character. She will perform on the 30th, 2nd and 4th, with the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre’s own Elizaveta Soina performing on the 1st and 3rd.
The production transports the opera from its usual 1830s setting to late-1940s Paris. The stage is starkly lit and characters are wrapped in trench coats and scarves, evoking those photos of Sartre and de Beauvoir smoking and freezing in apparently unheated cafes. These costume and set designs promise to lend a bracing blast of postwar air to an opera often suffocated by the usual stuffy, boho clichés of the nineteenth-century Latin Quarter.
The music of the opera is profoundly lyrical and seeks to pick up and carry the listener upon its forceful emotional tides. From act one’s stirring “O Soave Fanciulla” up until the tragic denouement, the opera overflows with heart-rending arias. This may explain why it remains one of the best-loved and most-performed operas throughout the world.
It is true that La Bohème does come in for occasional condescension due to what some perceive as Puccini’s “cheap” or “unsophisticated” music. The opera may put off many for this reason, as well as for its reputed saccharine sadness. It is, however, a masterful work and should not be dismissed as populist. Puccini breaks free from the wooden formalities of earlier Italian opera by dispensing with the prelude and, most importantly, allowing the music to blend seamlessly with the developing thoughts and moods of the characters, as well as the progression of the narrative itself. La Bohème is arguably the finest example of Puccini’s meticulous realist style and undoubtedly merits being seen at least once in your life, and this production promises not to disappoint.
Full price tickets begin at €35, with concessions available for students.
