La Bohéme

Puccini and his librettists gave a musical and dramaturgical treatment to the

tales of Henri Murger, who had memorialized the life of Parisian artists and

Bohemians in the serialized novel Scènes de la vie de bohème in the mid-19th

century. However, the work hardly has a plot in the stricter sense. As in a film,

scenes, images and impressions flit past the viewer. Like snapshots,

momentary images record the pact of friendship between four young

individualists in the metropolis of Paris: Rodolfo writing, Colline philosophizing,

Marcello painting, and Schaunard, who has turned towards music. Into this

artists’ idyll, Rodolfo introduces fragile Mimì – who, however, does not seem cut

out for the life of the bohemians…

The main goal of Italian stage director Damiano Michieletto is to find a

contemporary form for the story and to capture the attitude towards life of young

people today: those who stand up for their passions, pursue their visions and

dare to seek out new paths in art – even if they fail grandly.

Conductor | Daniele Gatti

Director | Damiano Michieletto

Sets | Paolo Fantin

Costumes| Carla Teti

Lights | Martin Gebhardt

Cast

Piotr Beczala, Rodolfo, a poet

Anna Netrebko, Mimì

Massimo Cavalletti, Marcello, a painter

Nino Machaidze, Musetta

Alessio Arduini, Schaunard, a musician

Carlo Colombara, Colline, a philosopher

Davide Fersini, Benoît, their landlord

Peter Kálmán, Alcindoro, a state councillor

Steven Forster, Parpignol

Member of the Young Singers Project

Vienna Philharmonic

Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus

Salzburg Festival Children's Choir

Recorded LIVE from the Salzburg Festival. Wednesday, August 01, 2012