25.07.2016
New season opens with La Bohème
The 184th season of the Mikhailovsky Theatre is set to open with a première of the opera La Bohème. Performances will be held on 8 and 9 September.
Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème has rarely been out of the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s repertoire. Since 1921, the opera has been performed regularly and revived in several different interpretations. In the new season, the theatre will bring eminent Canadian director Robert Carsen’s staging of La Bohème from Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp to a St. Petersburg audience. According to European critics, Carsen’s production is distinguished by virtue of the fact that the “understated elegance on stage counterbalances Puccini’s highly charged melodrama.”
The love story at the plot’s centre unfolds within a Parisian milieu of bohemians who openly flout the social conventions of the time. The opera’s heroes are romantics and lovers of life who shrug in response to the world’s cruel indifference. They understand that love is too tender a feeling for this world, a feeling one cannot hope to hold onto forever. They relish the love affair that takes up residence in their dilapidated attic, only to let it go later on, though not without regret. La Bohème reveals its charm through a series of seemingly mundane objects: a new hat, a warm coat, embers in the fireplace, and cheap wine. These humble artefacts of everyday life also speak of the rush of young blood, the creative impulse, and dreams of success and recognition.
Vladimir Kekhman, Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre: “The inclusion in our repertoire of a production by a renowned master like Robert Carsen is a significant and joyous occasion for the theatre, even if it came about as the result of rather unpleasant circumstances. I shall leave the recounting of these circumstances to the director himself.”
Robert Carsen, director: “I was flattered by the tremendous reaction of audiences to La Bohème at the Opera Vlaanderen. Then, the production evidently took on a life of its own. Four years after our première, we heard that an identical show had been performed in St. Petersburg. After my manager complained, the show was shut down, and I was immediately invited to St. Petersburg to stage the original production.” (From an interview given to newspaper De Standaard, quoted on the Opera Vlaanderen website https://operaballet.bе)
Musical Director and conductor of the production - Mikhail Tatarnikov.
At the 8 September première, Najmiddin Mavlyanov will sing the role of Rodolfo.
Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème has rarely been out of the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s repertoire. Since 1921, the opera has been performed regularly and revived in several different interpretations. In the new season, the theatre will bring eminent Canadian director Robert Carsen’s staging of La Bohème from Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp to a St. Petersburg audience. According to European critics, Carsen’s production is distinguished by virtue of the fact that the “understated elegance on stage counterbalances Puccini’s highly charged melodrama.”
The love story at the plot’s centre unfolds within a Parisian milieu of bohemians who openly flout the social conventions of the time. The opera’s heroes are romantics and lovers of life who shrug in response to the world’s cruel indifference. They understand that love is too tender a feeling for this world, a feeling one cannot hope to hold onto forever. They relish the love affair that takes up residence in their dilapidated attic, only to let it go later on, though not without regret. La Bohème reveals its charm through a series of seemingly mundane objects: a new hat, a warm coat, embers in the fireplace, and cheap wine. These humble artefacts of everyday life also speak of the rush of young blood, the creative impulse, and dreams of success and recognition.
Vladimir Kekhman, Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre: “The inclusion in our repertoire of a production by a renowned master like Robert Carsen is a significant and joyous occasion for the theatre, even if it came about as the result of rather unpleasant circumstances. I shall leave the recounting of these circumstances to the director himself.”
Robert Carsen, director: “I was flattered by the tremendous reaction of audiences to La Bohème at the Opera Vlaanderen. Then, the production evidently took on a life of its own. Four years after our première, we heard that an identical show had been performed in St. Petersburg. After my manager complained, the show was shut down, and I was immediately invited to St. Petersburg to stage the original production.” (From an interview given to newspaper De Standaard, quoted on the Opera Vlaanderen website https://operaballet.bе)
Musical Director and conductor of the production - Mikhail Tatarnikov.
At the 8 September première, Najmiddin Mavlyanov will sing the role of Rodolfo.
