La boheme
Rodolfo, an unsuccessful young writer, finds no inspiration for his text when a young woman unexpectedly appears on the doorstep. She just wants to relight her extinguished candle, but the encounter between the two opens up one of the most heartbreaking love stories in operatic literature. With two consecutive arias, among the most famous of Giacomo Puccini, Mimì and Rodolfo introduce themselves, only to fall in love shortly afterwards. In our revival, both roles have top-class cast: The tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who has made a world career in bel canto, has already dared to perform his celebrated interpretation of Massenet's Werther at the Zurich Opera Houseinto the more dramatic subject, now he is making his role debut at our house as Puccini's Rodolfo. Ruzan Mantashyan, who shone last season as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte , sings Mimì. Marco Armiliato, who has already conducted Puccini's La fanciulla del West and Tosca in Zurich, is on the podium .
In his visually powerful production, the Norwegian Ole Anders Tandberg tells of the hopes and disappointments of young bohemians: Rodolfo's poetic fantasies come to life in a small Norwegian theater. In the end, the bitter truth catches up with him too late when he realizes that Mimì is not an artistic muse, but a woman who really needed love and care
