01/14/17 – La Boheme – 1PM

Metropolitan Opera

La Bohème
Composed by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

• Sung in Italian
• ESTIMATED RUN TIME 2 HRS 58 MINS
• front page photo credit: Marty Sohl/ Met Opera

World premiere: Teatro Regio, Turin, 1896. Met company premiere: Los Angeles (on tour), November 9, 1900. La Bohème, the passionate, timeless, and indelible story of love among young artists in Paris, can stake its claim as the world’s most popular opera. It has a marvelous ability to make a powerful first impression and to reveal unsuspected treasures after dozens of hearings. At first glance, La Bohème is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things—a bonnet, an old overcoat, a chance meeting with a neighbor—that make up our everyday lives.

The Met presents its spectacular Zeffirelli production,with multiple excellent casts: Ailyn Pérez and Kristine Opolais are paired with Dmytro Popov, Piotr Beczała, and Michael Fabiano, as the young Parisian lovers at the center of the story. Susanna Phillips, David Bizic, and Massimo Cavalletti also star. Carlo Rizzi and Marco Armiliato conduct.