Opera Australia’s 2019 Season started with a bang on New Year’s Eve with Gale Edwards’ production of Puccini’s La Boheme. On centre stage an outstanding cast featuring Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El Khoury as Mimì, Italian tenor Ivan Magrì as Rodolfo, Russian soprano Anna Princeva as Musetta and the acclaimed OA cast, chorus and orchestra conducted by Benjamin Northey.
“In my opinion, Boheme is the complete opera” says Ivan Magrì, who is making his debut in Australia. “Boheme encapsulates joy, kindness, fear, love, poetry, art, sadness and suffering. It is a present-day story”, adds Ivan.
Puccini’s masterpiece was composed in controversial circumstances in 1895 and premiered on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin. Neapolitan composer Ruggero Leoncavallo, better known for his dramatic opera I Pagliacci, was working on exactly the same opera as Puccini and asked his rival to stop composing his version. But Puccini replied: “Let him compose his, I compose mine. The public will judge”. Leoncavallo’s Boheme premiered at La Fenice in Venice in 1897 and is rarely performed today in a clear verdict on who won the contest.
Undoubtedly this opera is not only a crowd-pleaser but also a financial blessing for theatres. OA artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, in a recent interview with SBS Italian, said that Boheme guarantees the financial backing without which it would be harder to stage new productions.
To know more about Opera Australia’s La Boheme click here.
OA La Boheme Source: Photo by Keith Saunders courtesy of Opera Australia
