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Opéra de Monte-Carlo

Royal Opera House Muscat

Conductor

Marco Armiliato

Stage director

Stage director (+3)

Jean-Louis Grinda

Set designer

Costume designer (+3)

Rudy Sabounghi

Costume designer

Costume designer (+1)

David Belugou

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+2)

Laurent Castaingt

Chorusmaster

Conductor (+3)

Stefano Visconti

Tenor (+3)

Yusif Eyvazov

Rodolfo

Baritone (+5)

Florian Sempey

Marcello

Baritone (+3)

Biagio Pizzuti

Schaunard

Bass (+3)

Giorgi Manoshvili

Colline

Baritone (+2)

Fabrice Alibert

Benoît

Bass-baritone (+12)

Matteo Peirone

Alcindoro

Orchestra

Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo

Chorus

Choeur de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo

Children's Choir of the Rainier III Music Academy

Grimaldi Forum

Soprano (+5)

Anna Netrebko

Mimi

Soprano (+1)

Nino Machaidze

Musetta

Soprano (+3)

Mariam Battistelli

When Giacomo Puccini turned to Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, who had collaborated fruitfully with him on the libretto of Manon Lescaut shortly before, he struggled with turning into a convincing structure the Scènes de la vie de bohème, written 45 years earlier by the French literary realist Henry Murger (1822-1861). When the completed opera was finally premiered in Torino in 1896, it even received unfavourable reviews in spite of Toscanini’s conducting.

To us, the four short acts of La bohème feel well balanced, their mixture of lightness, exuberance, lyricism, true feeling and heart-rendering sadness perfect. The orchestral writing is colourful but always to the point, the sung parts conversationally natural but interspersed with some of the most memorable tunes in opera history. Today, we are still moved profoundly by the naive youthfulness of Puccini’s characters, who are doomed but blessed with short moments of innocent bliss.

These performances of La bohème will be interpreted by a glamorous cast headed by Anna Netrebko as Mimì.

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