Opera Australia farewells beloved La Boheme

Visitors to the Sydney Opera House this summer will have the opportunity to enjoy Gale Edwards’ much loved production of Puccini’s La Bohème for the very last time as Opera Australia announces 2022 will be its final Sydney season.

The first opera Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini commissioned for OA, this beloved telling of Puccini’s opera was created by the dream team of internationally renowned director Gale Edwards, OAM-recipient set designer Brian Thomson, Helpmann Award-winning costume designer Julie Lynch and acclaimed lighting designer John Rayment.

Lyndon:

This La Bohème was so well-received when it premiered in 2011 that we’ve started almost every year with it since. It quickly became a crowd favourite and now feels familiar and brings a sense of comfort, which is something we all need right now, so I wanted to give our audiences the chance to see it one more time, before we present a new production in 2023,”

Running in the Joan Sutherland Theatre this January, this popular production will have been performed 183 times across the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne by the time it closes on February 4. Described as “a masterpiece…a feast for the eyes”, this 2011 version opened to critics claiming it’s “a dramatic and emotional journey that is at times overwhelming” as audience members experience “a truly wonderful time,” (Stage Noise).

Stellar Italian soprano Valeria Sepe will bring the role of Mimì to life opposite internationally successful Australian-Chinese tenor Kang Wang as the poet Rodolfo, both reprising their characters from OA’s 2020 season.

Opera Australia principal singers Julie Lea Goodwin will reprise her successful role as Musetta and Haotian Qi will make his role debut as Marcello. Shane Lowrencev, Richard Anderson, Andrew Moran, Clifford Plumpton, Malcolm Ede and Benjamin Rasheed complete the cast.

Italian maestro Lorenzo Passerini will conduct the first half of the opera’s 2022 run, followed by outstanding Australian conductor Paul Fitzsimon, leading the Opera Australia Orchestra, Opera Australia Chorus and Children’s Chorus.

Set in 1930s Berlin, La Bohème explores the lives of four bohemians as they become entangled through love, jealousy and loss. Puccini’s music will soar, expressing what words alone cannot, as the curtain rises on Gale Edwards’ La Bohème one last time.

Creatives

• Conductor Lorenzo Passerini Dec 31 – Jan 15
• Paul Fitzsimon Jan 20 – February 4
• Director & Choreographer Gale Edwards
• Revival Director Shaun Rennie
• Set Designer Brian Thomson
• Costume Designer Julie Lynch
• Lighting Designer John Rayment

Cast

• Mimì Valeria Sepe
• Rodolfo Kang Wang
• Musetta Julie Lea Goodwin
• Marcello Haotian Qi
• Schaunard Shane Lowrencev
• Colline Richard Anderson
• Benoît / Alcindoro Andrew Moran
• Officer Clifford Plumpton
• Sergeant Malcolm Ede
• Parpignol Benjamin Rasheed

Opera Australia is committed to COVID Safe practices.

Season Details

Venue: Joan Sutherland Theatre| Sydney Opera House
Date: 4 Jan- 4 Feb 2022

For more information click HERE