Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Two Nights Of LA Opera's 'La Boheme' Will Conducted By Gustavo Dudamel
Like the Met in New York, LA Opera long ago commissioned an Academy Award-nominated film director to create a lavish stage production of Puccini's La Boheme, arguably the most popular opera of them all, and brings it back every few years for another crowd-pleasing run. The late Herbert Ross created this production for the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1993, and it's now playing there for the seventh time. The big occasion this go-round is that LA Philharmonic superstar chief conductor Gustavo Dudamel will be performing across First Street from his usual Disney Hall home to make his LA Opera debut in the last two performances of Boheme this season on June 10 and 12.
Before Dudamel joins for those two dates, the LA Opera Boheme is running for several performances under the baton of up-and-coming Italian conductor Speranza Scappucci, with alternating singers in the three lead roles. UCLA Opera Studies Director Peter Kazaras directs the action in this year's revival.
It is quite a spectacle, this 23-year-old Boheme production, enhancing the familiar story of charismatically penurious artists in 19th-century Paris with elaborate stage designs that evoke the romantic social exuberance of the Belle Epoque. A still-uncompleted Eiffel Tower looms behind the protagonists' residential attic and the Latin Quarter cafe scene captures every idealistic notion of the era of Zola and Toulouse-Lautrec, culminating in the bountiful unfurling of French tricolores in the grandiose military procession that punctuates the end of the opera's first half. It's all a bit over the top, but the characterizations shaped by Kazaras remain earthy and playful amid the sumptuous visual excess.
Maestra Scappucci maintains a predominately rapid tempo in all four of the opera's scenes as well as an orchestral dynamic that occasionally overwhelms the singers, especially before the intermission. Still, Moldovan soprano Olga Busuioc, making her LA Opera debut the night we attended, stood out powerfully and beautifully in the lead role of Mimi. Baritone Nicholas Brownlee offered a moving delivery of the always affecting aria of farewell to the old coat that his character, Colline, is compelled to sell toward the end of Boheme. Giorgio Caoduro and Amanda Woodbury are appealingly tempestuous as on-again-off-again lovers Marcello and Musetta, while Kihun Yoon is a high-spirited addition to this group of friends as Schaunard. Guatemalan tenor Mario Chang, also making his company debut with this production, portrays an amiably low-key poet Rodolfo, every bit as surprised as his friends at the romantic good fortune that comes his way in the opera's first half and heartbreakingly devastated at the drama's conclusion.
Support for LAist comes from
So far, this year's Boheme performance plays up the romantic comedy with an unhappy ending which inspired the musical Rent and other homages more than it lingers on Puccini's impossibly gorgeous melodies. Of course Dudamel, who was conducting the Phil in Mozart and Arvo Pärt right next door while we were watching the opera last week, could substantially reorient the production's gestalt when he takes over next month. We'd go see it then.
La Boheme runs for five more performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist