ARTISTIC DIRECTOR BLOG 

Happy New Season!

Welcome to 2018! I'm so happy that, for the first time, Opera in the Park audiences can experience what MAY just be the perfect opera: Puccini's La Bohème. As an introduction to opera for first-timers, La Bohème is right up there with Carmen (coming later in 2018) and Madama Butterfly - heart-stopping tunes, cast-iron dramaturgy and rip-roaring emotion.

For those who want to arrive prepared, I've created a Q&A below. It's a much better experience when you can come to a Opera in the Park not only with your picnic and your glad rags on, but with a bit of context.

Who wrote it?

Giacomo Puccini is the composer, and La Bohème was his first great success. In fact there was a battle over the rights; the composer Leoncavallo was already writing a Bohème opera, and Puccini (slightly sneakily) jumped in with his own (and far more successful) version. La Bohème was the foundation for Puccini's further commissions and his starry success, as the most profitable opera composer of the twentieth and (so far) twenty-first centuries.

The libretto (text) has two official author credits, but in fact at least six people (including Puccini himself) wrangled it into shape, from the novella by Murger. It's amazing that such a chaotic process resulted in such perfection. Apparently Puccini could compose at a table in the early hours, surrounded by a group of card-playing and drinking buddies. Sounds a bit like Bohème itself...

What's the story?

A group of card-playing and drinking buddies, all pecunious young artists, scrape a meagre living in Paris. A poet and a painter meet two girls, with whom they have tempestuous affairs. They can't live together, can't live without each other. It ends badly.

Who are the characters?

Rodolfo - a struggling wannabe poet (Paul O'Neill, tenor)

Mimî - a piece-worker seamstress (Elena Perroni, soprano)

Marcello - a painter (James Clayton, baritone)

Musetta - a singer (Rachelle Durkin, soprano)

Schaunard - a musician (Mark Alderson, baritone)

Colline - a philosopher (Paull Anthony Keightley, bass)

What about the tunes?

Unless you are totally tone-deaf you will have heard the wonderful music of Bohème infused into popular culture, even if you've never seen the opera. Rent, Moulin Rouge and many pop songs have drawn on the music Puccini wrote. Here are some Spotify tasters for you:

The Waltz Song (Musetta)

Act One love duet (Mimì and Rodolfo)

Che gelida manina (Rodolfo)

Who are the artists for Opera in the Park?

I've listed the names of the principal artists above, next to their character names. Opera in the Park is our annual party, and our casting policy (WA, national and international artists, in that order where possible) is on full display this year. Alongside audience favourites Paul O'Neill, Rachelle Durkin and James Clayton, we're delighted to welcome Elena Perroni to WA Opera for the first time. Resident in the States, Elena was born and bred in Perth, and this is her Australian début. We're excited about presenting her to Opera in the Park audiences.

La Bohème will be directed by Stuart Maunder, a long-time friend of WAO and currently General Director of New Zealand Opera. After our collaboration on last season's Tosca, I'm delighted to welcome back Stuart as my partner in crime on this production. I will be conducting, as I have for each Opera in the Park since I began as Artistic Director. My last Bohème was ten years ago, in Sweden, with a rather famous but very difficult German director. This time I know there'll be more sweetness and light!

A quirky fact to impress your date

Puccini savagely cut the original libretto, removing some important plot points. In the completed version, Rodolfo seems irrationally jealous in Act III; this is because in the cut section, Mimì had danced with someone else at a party. What the story loses in coherence it more than makes up for in pace and direction - something I would take over tedium any day.

I welcome you to City of Perth Opera in the Park on Saturday 3 February, in its place as the portal to our 2018 season. I look forward to a wonderful starry night, and to a rewarding year spent in your company.

Until next time,

Brad Cohen
Artistic Director