2019 / 2020                   Main Hall        the 7th Season

31 October * Thursday * 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: Dian TCHOBANOV (Bulgaria)

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)

 

 

LEAD ROLES AND PERFORMERS

Mimi: Bibigul ZHANUZAK, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

Rodolfo: Nurlan BEKMUKHAMBETOV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan, Honoured Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan

Musetta: Aigerim SARSENOVA (Austria)

Marcello: Talgat MUSSABAYEV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

Colline: Bolat YESSIMKHANOV

Schaunard: Yerzhan SAIPOV

Alcindoro: Armin BABAYAN

Benoît: Talgat GALEYEV

Parpignol: Ramzat BALAKISHIYEV

Customs Sergeant:  Samat ZHARYLKASSYNOV

 

Management reserves the right to substitute performers