Yuval Sharon’s adaptation also includes the addition of a new character called “The Wanderer” (Marshall Hughes) who provides spoken English-language introductions to each new act. Additionally, the movement of the stage, which is built on a rotating, circular platform, helps orient the audience through the changes in time, while shifts in lighting transition us from the bleak days of sickness and financial stress to the rose-colored scenes of young love, and add nuance to the otherwise minimalist set. The libretto, which is based on the French play “Scènes de la Vie Bohème” by Henri Murger, is structured in a series of vignettes that could easily stand on their own, allowing each act to retain its emotional poignancy despite the Boston adaptation’s reversal in chronology. Besides this restructuring, Puccini’s music is relatively untouched, save some generous cuts in Act I that slim the opera’s runtime down to a trim 100 minutes with no intermission - an impressive feat for a show that usually commands almost three hours, and likely an attempt to make the production more accessible to new audience members.īohème’s episodic construction beautifully lends itself to this reverse-linear adaptation. The performance begins where Puccini’s original work ends - with Mimì’s (Lauren Michelle) tragic death in Act IV - and moves backward in time from there, culminating with ill-fated lovers Mimì and Rodolfo’s (Jesus Garcia) first meeting in Act I. Produced in conjunction with Detroit Opera and Spoleto Festival USA, stage director Yuval Sharon’s visionary interpretation of the classic opera stages its events in reverse chronology. These adaptations have been met with varying degrees of affection from die-hard opera fans, but Boston Lyric Opera’s excellent and unorthodox staging of “La Bohème” is sure to please even the most staunch opera purists. Past productions have seen the tragic tale of impoverished artists in 1830s Paris interpreted as everything from a wordless ballet set in the 1950s to a futuristic love story that unfolds in outer space. Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece “La Bohème,” one of the most beloved pieces in the classical repertoire, has been a particular target of such reimaginings.
In the 21st century, the dilemma facing many opera companies around the world is how to refresh centuries-old operas to appeal to a modern audience.
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