La Boheme

Lyrical Drama in two Acts
Music : Giacomo Puccini

Libretto : Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Sc?nes de la vie de boh?me by Henri Murger

Stage production by the Peoples Artist of Russia Yuri Alexandrov

Performed in Italian 

First night performance on February 4, 5, 2011

La Boheme has never been put on stage at Saint-Petersburg Opera before. “I often watched grown-up singers portraying young characters in this opera and have long rejected the production” sais Yuri Alexandrov. Today I have a happy opportunity to produce Bohemia with young talented soloists of Saint-Petersburg Opera. Our production is about twenty-years-olds and for twenty-years-olds. It depicts relationships between man and woman existing from the time of Adam and Eve. The main artistic device of the performance is intentional rejection of common theatrical decorativeness. The dominant of the scenography is the staircase going skyward. Other elements include a stove, an easel, and a couch and are aimed at emphasizing the realism of the action. The main point for us is to play life, observing Puccini’s musical intonations. In fact this opera is so harmonized and conceptual accents are so articulate that the only danger for the director and singers is not to fit into the existing academic framework.