La Boheme
2020 / 2021 Main Hall the 8th Season
12 March * Friday * 7:00 pm
Giacomo Puccini
LA BOHÈME
Opera in 4 acts
The plot of La bohème was borrowed from the popular French novel Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. Puccini composed the music of La bohème in eight months. The world premiere of La bohème took place in Turin on 1 February 1896, conducted by twenty-eight-year-old Arturo Toscanini. Soon La bohème won stages worldwide.
La bohème is perhaps the most French in style and spirit Italian opera, characterized by surprising subtlety of emotions. The opera is set in the Latin Quarter of Paris on Christmas Eve. All the characters of the opera are young. These are beggar intellectuals: poet Rodolfo, painter Marcello, musician Schaunard and philosopher Colline. Need is a constant companion of their lives, but they do not lose heart and have fun even when they have nothing to pay to the landlord or to heat the fireplace. In the young people’s everyday life, there is a place for joy, poetry, friendship and love.
A casual encounter of Rodolfo and Mimi, a seamstress girl, living in the same house, awakens love in his heart. Mimi returns his love. However, happiness does not last long. Rodolfo and Mimi break up: she is consumed by tuberculosis and Rodolfo’s housing is damp and cold. The spring passes, and Mimi returns to Rodolfo, but her days are numbered. The world is arranged in such a way, that the most pure, gentle and defenseless is doomed to destruction.
Director Andrea Bernard will present a new stage version of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The spectacular two-level sets, a train entering the stage and other findings of the celebrated set designer Ezio Frigerio, as well as the Holiday Scene featuring professional circus artists, will make a familiar life story of young creators unrecognizable.
PRODUCTION GROUP
Conductor: Abzal MUKHITDIN, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Director: Andrea BERNARD
Scenographer: Ezio FRIGERIO
Costume Designer: Franca SQUARCIAPINO
Chief Chorus Master: Yerzhan DAUTOV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Projection Designer: Sergio METALLI
Lighting Designer: Vincenzo RAPONI
Assistant Directors: Yerenbak TOIKENOV, Tecla GUCCI
Assistant Scenographer: Riccardo MASSIRONI
Assistant Costume Designers: Danièle BOUTARD, Anna VERDE
Choirmasters of the Children's Studio: Altynganym AKHMETOVA, Aigerim MAKIBAYEVA
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (including two intervals)
Performed in Italian
(with synchronized Kazakh and Russian subtitles)
Mimi: Bibigul ZHANUZAK, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Rodolfo: Medet CHOTABAYEV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Musetta: Yelena GANZHA
Marcello: Talgat MUSSABAYEV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Colline: Bolat YESSIMKHANOV
Schaunard: Yevgeniy CHAINIKOV
Alcindoro: Shyngys RASYLKHAN
Benoît: Talgat GALEYEV
Parpignol: Beimbet TANARYKOV
Management reserves the right to substitute performers