Festival Opera
La boheme
Festival Theatre
Meadow Belal
four stars
PUCCINI'S La bohème is undoubtedly one of opera's greatest works, with an endearing love story. It is a tale of young artists, struggling to keep both their passions and themselves alive. A blazing romance forms between poet Rodolfo and fragile Mimi – can these bohemians bring fiery desire into their metropolitan lives? Or will their love flicker and die?
Despite being 120 years old, the work holds a timeless quality that still integrates well into our contemporary lives. This reimagining brings La bohème into a modern age, whilst the heart of the story remains, thanks to conductor Gianandrea Noseda's graceful hand.
My exposure to opera has been limited, so going into the theatre I expected to be subjected to a dire production that I would struggle to interpret. However, this was far from the case. Under the direction of Àlex Ollé, this masterpiece has been removed from traditional Parisian garrets, and completely revived into a vibrant, multicultural urban sprawl of today. The set is stunning, tall metal structures designed by Alfons Flores sticking out in my mind the most. These moving edifices tell Puccini’s heart-rending story across many levels, beautifully complementing Ollé's colourful direction.
However enchanting the orchestrations were, I did feel at some points it drowned the actors, despite masterfully playing Puccini's music. Although my knowledge of opera is a developing one, I understand that there must be a balance between the two, which dipped at times.
This production of La bohème was captivating, engaging both young and old, making it a wonderful way to spend the last few evenings of this sensational festival.
Festival Opera
La boheme
Festival Theatre
Anna McMillan
four stars
MANY of us can relate to the main theme of this opera. We have all experienced death in our day-to-day life. In Giacamo Puccini’s La boheme we experience many different overwhelming themes all helping to connect each character to another. Given a phenomenal new production by Edinburgh International Festival, Puccini’s tragic love story unfolds when four Bohemians – an artist, a poet, a musician and a philosopher – are short of money however their luck changes when they meet the love of their lives. Puccini gradually develops this by his outstanding pieces of music which in this showing was played by the Orchestra and Chorus Teatro Regio Torino and their magnificent conductor Gianandrea Noseda with the tremendous production directed by Alex Ollè.
The audience experiences this story in chronological order, including the use of lighting in each scene to create a mood and atmosphere. Each piece of music helps introduce the ideas of the opera because it helps us to understand the difficulties and challenges the Bohemians experience. When Marcello asks Colline "are you dead yet?" this humorous moment helps to make the opera uplifting and heartfelt. The superb set was designed by Alfons Flores, this played a very important part as it helped us to visualise the contrast in characters shown through set and props. As they would say in Italy: "un'esperienza che non dimenticherò mai!" (an experience I’ll never forget!)
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