Latest news with #LaBohème
NZ Herald
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Verona Opera Festival: Tosca captivates under starlit skies
Historically, there would have been a throng of up to 30,000 spectators in the stands, but the evening we visit, the Arena's full capacity is 15,000, with one large curve of the stalls providing a natural backdrop for the stage set. We chose Poltrona (armchair) seats in the stalls and felt fully immersed in the concave setting, especially as the sun set and a colossal statue of the archangel Michael was dramatically lit. While there are many beautifully-staged operas to attend each season, we had chosen the political thriller Tosca, seeing as it is by an Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, and set in Rome, Italy, (unlike his Madame Butterfly in Japan or La Bohème in Paris) and, well, when in 'Little Rome'. Relatively new to opera, we didn't know what to expect. Certainly not the dramatic turn of events in the opening scene, when we felt two raindrops, prompting the romantic leads to walk off stage. Fortunately, the dramatic clouds rolled away like painted props, and the show went on after a Prosecco under the arches of the arena (each opera typically has a back-up date if others are not so lucky). As couples young and old cuddled up all around us, we could forgive the stars, Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo and Ruggero Raimondi, for wanting to protect their voices for an opera of such a grand scale under the real-life stars. The plot was fast-paced, and subtitle screens, in English and Italian, on both sides of the stage ensured we were not left behind. Casa di Giulietta. Photo / Destination Verona & Garda Foundation There was one other unplanned plot twist, after a particularly emotionally charged song, when some in the crowd cried 'encore' and the primo uomo re-did his entire solo. While encores in the middle of a performance are discouraged at established opera houses, such as La Scala in Milan, they can be accepted here. For me, the cheeky grin of the singer at the re-set broke the 'fourth wall', that magic imaginary line between actors and audiences where they pretend we're not there – but the heart wants what it wants, and the enjoyment from the crowd was genuine. In a surreal way, it reminded me of earlier works of theatre, including Shakespeare's, where audience interaction was a crucial theatrical element. Like many of the great love stories in opera and theatre, Tosca is a tragedy, and the thunderous applause at the end of the opera was a shared cathartic relief. As we left the glowing arena at midnight, we assumed we were all dressed up with nowhere to go. But on a stroll back to our boutique hotel, several street cafes were still open for nightcaps, paired, in our case, with Margherita pizza. The stop wasn't essential, seeing as we'd already indulged before the show at Antica Bottega Del Vino, which had a red leather-bound wine list longer than Dante's Divine Comedy. This is fitting, given that the poet and writer Dante Alighieri had a home in Verona during the early 1300s, as it was becoming a leading cultural centre under Lord Cangrande I della Scala (and he could have crossed paths with the lovers that inspired Romeo and Juliet, with some creative licence). Verona is one of the world's most romantic cities. Photo / Destination Verona & Garda Foundation The Arena di Verona Opera Festival itself is 111 years in play. The opening opera, in 1913, was another tragedy, Aida. It was chosen to mark the centenary of the birth of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. In 2025, Aida is back on the opera calendar, alongside classics like La Traviata and Nabucco, also by Verdi, with modern staging. In a world of mindless movie streaming and double-screening, it's inspiring to see the Veronesi applaud time-honoured theatrics and arias – and that millions of people will travel to one of the world's most romantic cities to witness them once more. Encore!
San Francisco Chronicle
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Baritone Brian Mulligan on coming out with San Francisco Opera in style and song
For two decades, baritone Brian Mulligan has performed on many of the world's great stages, but his heart belongs to San Francisco. Now, in a full-circle moment, the internationally acclaimed singer returns to make history as one of the featured soloists in San Francisco Opera's first-ever Pride Concert, set for Friday, June 27, at the War Memorial Opera House. 'San Francisco Opera is unquestionably the most important opera company in my life,' Mulligan, 46, told the Chronicle by phone from his native town of Endicott in upstate New York. 'They have taken chances on me and given me opportunities that no place else in the world has done. I consider it my home opera company.' While the baritone snagged his first professional role at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2003 when still a student at the Juilliard School, he's truly come into his own in San Francisco. Since making his debut at the War Memorial in 2008's ' La Bohème,' he's appeared there nearly two dozen times, singing everything from the title characters in ' Sweeney Todd ' and ' Nixon in China ' to a series of Wagner roles (mostly recently Telramund in 2023's ' Lohengrin '). He is set to return in October to sing the role of Amfortas in a new production of Wagner's 'Parsifal.' 'I've had so many firsts in San Francisco,' he recalled fondly, listing his first major Verdi role as Count Anckarström in 2014's 'Un Ballo in Maschera' among them. 'It's incredible to go back and see people, faces who know me and have helped me over the years to deliver performance after performance.' For the Pride Concert, Mulligan is slated to be joined by a few other San Francisco Opera favorites, mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz, for a program featuring tunes by Harold Arlen and Jerry Herman, among others, as well as operatic fare by Tchaikovsky and Camille Saint-Saëns. Music Director Eun Sun Kim will share conducting duties with Robert Mollicone, while drag queen Sapphira Cristál serves as emcee. Mulligan spoke to the Chronicle about Pride and his passion for the Opera ahead of the upcoming concert. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q: On the cusp of the city's 55th Pride Celebration, the San Francisco Opera is presenting its very first Pride Concert. What does that milestone mean to you? There was a long time (when) I felt my sexuality was a liability as an opera singer. Because almost all of the roles I play are straight people, being gay isn't exactly a good calling card. (But) over the years, I've proven myself as an actor. That's what being an opera singer is all about — portraying somebody else. Q: You've said that one of the reasons you leaned into opera growing up was because you were gay. Could you please elaborate on that? A: I started taking voice lessons when I was 17, and at that age, I didn't know or understand my sexuality. I knew that I was different, and (by) taking a step toward opera, which was also different, I was establishing my otherness — because most people don't know or understand anything about opera. Q: Fast-forward a few decades to this upcoming Pride Concert. Among the tunes you're preparing to sing are 'You Take My Breath Away,' Freddie Mercury's 1976 hit with Queen, as well as the aria 'I love you, dear' from Tchaikovsky's 'The Queen of Spades.' Did you make the selections? A: I had a hand in choosing the songs, but they were largely suggested by (the company). They explained that they were trying to highlight gay composers, iconic gay moments in opera and theater. (As) with any kind of recital program, it's about the order that you sing the pieces in. I'm starting with the Tchaikovsky; that will be most technically challenging because it's opera. After that, we'll move to the standard stuff. Q: Your 2022 solo CD, 'Alburnum,' features works by Mason Bates, Missy Mazzoli and Gregory Spears. You've also sung in contemporary operas, including John Adams' 'Nixon in China.' What is your attraction to new music? A: I often say to people, 'The greatest music may not have been composed yet.' There's a lot of phenomenal music that's been composed, but I have to believe that there's music that we don't know about yet. I really believe that one of the biggest draws for me in performing contemporary music is (that) often, it's written in English. I communicate best in English because it can (sometimes) be a struggle in other languages. No matter how good I get at German, French or Italian, I'm most powerful as a communicator in English. Q: As is the case with most successful opera singers today, your travel schedule is something akin to a rock star's. In the last few weeks, you were in Leipzig, Germany, before which you made your debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Where do you go to rejuvenate, and how do you keep it together on the road? A: Because I'm working more than 85% of the year, a few years ago I moved back to upstate New York, where my entire immediate and extended family lives — and I actually get to see them. So I come home to the absolute country. It's quiet. This morning, I opened the windows and I could hear all of the birds. It's incredible. I love living here. I have a small Norwich Terrier, Beauregard, who just turned 7, but he's still a puppy in many ways. He has a European passport, and he's been traveling with me everywhere — except Asia or the U.K. — since he was a baby, so he's completely used to it. I've found now that my life is centered around him, and wherever I go, I make sure it's near a place that's beautiful where we can walk. … He's improved my life, and since I need to (rest my voice) when I'm not performing, it's all silence with him. A: It's funny because I was thinking maybe I should wear some kind of glittery, sparkly, crazy Pride thing. But as time went on and I thought about it, Pride is actually more about being yourself and just owning who you are, and who I am is a simple tux kind of guy. I'm wearing a black tux with pink accessories — a pink tux shirt for part of the show and a pink pocket square.
San Francisco Chronicle
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: S.F. Opera's ‘La Bohème' will make you feel all the emotions
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to see it again. Giacomo Puccini's 'La Bohème,' the most-performed and quite possibly the most-loved opera in the standard repertory, has opened San Francisco Opera's summer season with a bang. Under the baton of guest conductor Ramón Tebar, with snappy work by revival director Katherine M. Carter, this production at the War Memorial Opera House comes about as close to musical and dramatic perfection as you can get. Each of the singers in the cast has real star quality — more on that in a bit. Just as importantly, they form a superb ensemble with the split-second timing of great comedians. Sure, there are big, famous arias, but the effectiveness of 'La Bohème' depends on swift movement from incident to incident. During the opening-night performance on Tuesday, June 3, Tebar's flexible, generous conducting matched that timing and gave this sophisticated score, full of complex tempo and metrical changes, cohesion and tremendous momentum. Add in the magnificent playing of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, performing despite unresolved labor negotiations, and the evening was sheer magic. The basic story is uncomplicated: Boy (the poet Rodolfo) meets girl (the seamstress Mimì). They fall in love. She dies of tuberculosis, an incurable scourge in the 19th century. (If this sounds familiar, Verdi's 'La Traviata,' also a great repertory staple, has a similar trajectory, though a vastly different emotional profile.) In tenor Pene Pati and soprano Karen Chia-ling Ho, the company has an ideal pair of leads. Pati's natural charm and beautiful, easy sound light up everything he does — he was an adorable Nemorino in 2023's ' The Elixir of Love. ' Meanwhile, Ho's shyness and fragility at her character's first entrance on Tuesday grew into real strength over the course of the opera, supported by her big, dark and beautifully controlled voice. There was real chemistry between the two, and you could believe that they'd fallen in love over a lost key only minutes after meeting. That's the baseline drama in the opera: Will Mimì live or die? Will she and Rodolfo stay together or be driven apart by illness? The story of the painter Marcello (baritone Lucas Meachem) and sometime kept woman Musetta (soprano Andrea Carroll in a sparkling and very funny company debut) runs parallel. The couples pair off, split up, come together again. Meachem and Carroll made their characters' love and affection perfectly clear, as well as the fact that the emotional cycle is likely to repeat indefinitely. This Marcello can barely bring himself to curse at Musetta wandering off with a new man at the close of Act 3, an interesting and persuasive dramatic choice emphasizing their hopeless love for each other. Carroll's Musetta might be a bit of a witch ('Strega!' as Marcello shouts), but she's as kindly toward Mimì as Meachem's warmhearted and enormously sympathetic Marcello is toward Rodolfo. Rounding out the cast of bohemians are the philosopher Colline and the musician Schaunard. Romanian bass Bogdan Talos, in his company debut, sang Colline's aria to his old coat, about to be sold to buy medicine for the dying Mimì, with poignant, heart-wrenching intimacy. Baritone Samuel Kidd, a current Adler Fellow, integrated Schaunard seamlessly into the antics, projecting enormous sorrow even as he turns his back on the fading Mimì. Bass-baritone Dale Travis was riotous as the landlord Benoit, outwitted by the bohemians when he tries to collect overdue rent, and as Alcindoro, Musetta's hapless admirer — roles Travis has played numerous times at the Opera. Members of the San Francisco Girls and Boys Choruses enlivened the Act 2 Latin Quarter scene with enthusiastic acting and accurate singing, and the Opera Chorus brought its customary excellence to many moments. David Farley's efficient production design allows easy transitions from the bohemians' garret to different places around Paris. The main dwelling, modeled on the works of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, nonetheless seems a bit drab for a 19th century artist's studio. Regardless, Carter's direction brings a wealth of vivid interactions to crowd scenes and among the principals. Eight performances remain, divided between the opening-night singers and an enticing alternate cast for Rodolfo, Mimì, Marcello and Musetta. For a great afternoon or evening, get out your handkerchiefs and get yourself to the War Memorial Opera House.
The Spinoff
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Review: La Boheme is intimate but inert
NZ Opera's production of Puccini's masterpiece looks and sounds lovely, but would it work better in a different space? Operas come with their own assumed cultural cache. Even if the general public – if such a thing exists anymore – isn't familiar with specific pieces, they at least know that certain operas exist, and that if they're still being performed they must at least be a little good. The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, and a few other Mozarts have this level of recognition. Puccini's La Bohème – the story of doomed bohemians in love – is another one of these. La Bohème is part of the standard opera repertoire, this most recent production being the fourth time that NZ Opera have performed it since the turn of the millennium, and it is regarded as one of the best operas of all time. You might also be familiar with it as the basis for the musical Rent, but La Bohème remains a far more interesting take on the source material, as it is loosely adapted from Henri Murger's Scenes de la vie de Bohème, which nobody reading this has read. (By the way, calling La Bohème a more interesting version of Rent is a surefire way to piss off fans of both shows.) Director Brad Cohen's new take on the show relocates it to Paris in 1947 – one of those oddly specific directorial setting choices that seems trendy in this artform – but otherwise feels fairly safe. For opera, it is a remarkably small scale story. Men hang out, men fall in love, woman gets sick, woman gets sicker, people get sadder. While there are a few moments where the stage is flooded by the ensemble, for the most part we remain with our core cast. Some of the singing seems oddly underpowered, sometimes lost under the orchestra. The men in the cast suffer the most here, stuck in the uncanny valley between mimicking the physicality of dudes hanging out with each other with the need to play out to the massive venue. As the doomed Mimi, Elena Perroni fares better, helped along by a gorgeous blue dress that seems to absorb the light, and a florid physicality that immediately defines the character. However, it's Emma Pearson as Musetta, easily the most fun character in the show, who stands out. She plays all the colours of the character, her darkness and her frippery, in a way that fills the stage rather than occupies it, but she also finds intimate moments that really stick out. There is one simple gesture toward the end of the show, a flick of a hand, that was so small and so specifically human, but still stood out in the massive space. 'Why do we go to the opera?' is a question I find myself asking when I see any opera, which is perhaps an unfair thing to ask of any one show. I don't watch an episode of Severance or say, even Family Guy, and ponder the value of TV as an artform. Opera is, however, a form that I am still very much in the process of understanding, and by proxy, truly appreciating. What I love about it is the spectacle, the fact that you can see every dollar onstage, and see what happens when art is supported to achieve that spectacle. Opera is a big artform, it involves human beings going large to achieve human truths even larger. La Bohème, or at least this production of it, is not what I go to the opera for. There is an intimacy to it that is lost in the Kiri Te Kanawa, and while the set strikes an initial gorgeous image – like the memory of a Parisian apartment in 1947 dropped in a sack onto the stage, complete with a sunlight hanging over them – the effect is lessened. Similarly, the moments of snow falling from the sky is also initially impressive, even moving, but becomes less effective on repetition. The tension of this intimacy is felt by the entire production (and perhaps this is the fault of the libretto). The moments where the ensemble come onstage feel obligatory rather than organic, and Chris McRae's delightful clown Parpignol, who entertains some children, is as much a jarring intrusion as his inclusion in the second to last paragraph of this review. I wondered what La Bohème might feel like in a more intimate space, whether a theatre like the ASB Waterfront or even Q's Rangatira could capture the small moments at the heart of this show. The show feels unfortunately inert, stuck on this massive stage rather than reaching out to grab us in the stalls. As a result, I felt similarly unmoved. I appreciate the beauty, the music, and what spectacle there is, but it sits at such a distance from me that it might as well be a sculpture. As with all opera, the human truths are there, but I wish I didn't have to squint to see them.
RNZ News
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Samoan opera star returns home for enduring classic La Bohème
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. 130 years on, Puccini's La Bohème remains an enduring classic and beloved opera. At the heart it's a simple story of four friends and their lovers; passionate artists and thinkers whose daily struggles compound and their hardships become tragedies. New Zealand-Samoan baritone Benson Wilson has returned home to appear on stage as Schaunard; one of the quartet of friends. Now based in London, Benson has been firmly establishing himself as a promising baritone in the opera world. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award before relocating over there. In 2016, he's won the Lexus Song Quest and more recently - the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Mina Foley Award. He's performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and has studied and performed multiple languages including Russian and German. It's not his first time in this role; he made his professional debut at Festival Opera in 2016, playing Schaunard. He speaks to Culture 101 about returning home to play a familiar character with NZ Opera. La Bohème is at Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre until the 6th of June before performances in Wellington and Christchurch.
