(Photo: Marc Brenner) Considered one of the most beloved and frequently performed operas in the world, “La Bohème” is the perfect blend of exquisite music, timeless tales, and romantic themes, an ideal first opera for any budding enthusiast. Its incarnations have included a rock musical, placing the opera in space, in a hospital, as well as a setting based in {…}
(Photo: Antoine François Prévost’s novel, “The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut,” was published in France in 1731 to great success. Its scandalous subject matter—featuring protagonists who live together out of wedlock, a Manon obsessed with greed to the point of prostitution, and a des Grieux who cheats at cards for money, with both ultimately landing in {…}
Photo credit: © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. “La bohème”, as the archetypal verismo opera, tends to resist stagings that take it much beyond the confines of nineteenth-century Paris, and indeed non-naturalistic approaches to the work. (Audiences tend to resist them too.) The two most successful in London recently have been John Copley’s recently retired version at the Royal Opera House – {…}