Opera in four acts
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger
Première: Teatro Regio, Turin, 1 February 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
New-to-Chicago production. Owned by the San Francisco Opera Association.
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Civic Opera House, Chicago, IL
March 28, 2013
Mimì: Anna Netrebko
Rodolfo: Joseph Calleja
Musetta: Elizabeth Futral††
Marcello: Lucas Meachem
Colline: Andrea Silvestrelli
Schaunard: Joseph Lim†
Benoit/Alcindoro: Dale Travis
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Original Production: Mark Lamos
Director: Louisa Muller*
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer: Walter Mahoney*
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Guest Chorus Master: Ian Robertson
*Lyric Debut
†current member, Ryan Opera Center
†† alumnus/ alumna, Ryan Opera Center
REVIEWS
By Herbert
I have got a subscription for 3 operas in 4 days, and today has begun with the final performance of La Boheme with Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja. Both fantastic singers as we know and as they have proved today one more time.
It was a traditional, but very effective production, and it was completely sold out. The audience read the subtitles very carefully and they laughed after each funny line or joke on stage.
After the show Anna said at the stage door that she was in a hurry because she had to catch a plane. But she took some time to greet her fans. Then she dashed out of the building and stopped the first yellow cab at the traffic lights, jumped in and rushed to the airport - typical Anna.
By Robert
Three days later [Editor's note: three days after Anna's recital in Beaver Creek. See Robert's review] (the final leg of a 50th anniversary trip) found us in Chicago for the final performance of the Lyric Opera's run of La Boheme, with Anna and Joseph Calleja in glorious voice and a uniformly strong cast of Bohemians - most notably the cavernous-voiced bass Andre Silvestrelli as Colline.
As on opening night (as reported in the press), the audience erupted in applause the moment Anna first appeared, stepping shyly into Rodolfo's garret room. We have seen La Boheme many times, including twice with Anna and Rolando Villazon at the Met, but for us (and despite Villaume's occasional failure to rein the orchestra to the singer's pace) this was the best, vocally the most mesmerizing, the most deeply moving - one that fully justified the detailed, glowing praise lavished on it, and on Anna's Mimi and Calleja's Rodolfo in particular, by the critical media.
Our thanks to Herbert for posting photographs that will serve as visual reminders of a memorable experience, both of the production and of the compelling artist at its heart. The pictures of a sans facon Anna greeting fans afterward and then sprinting for a cab to the airport called to mind her own comment to Maria-Cristina Necula, quoted in Necula's book, Life in Opera: "...on the stage you don't want to have any complexes. You're there, that's it! - 'I'm the king! I'm here with all my power!' But after that, you have to be a regular person again and say, 'Okay, that was fine, but I have to do this, this and that now.' "
PHOTOS
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| Lyric Opera of Chicago. Photo: Herbert |
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| Lyric Opera of Chicago. Photo: Herbert |
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| Lyric Opera of Chicago. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
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| Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of Chicago 28. Mar 2013. Photo: Herbert |
Thank you Herbert and Robert. As Ronert mentioned I also went to Veil to listen Anna's concert on the 25th and "La Boheme" on the 28th in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteIn Veil she was like Queen and talked and sang in a vert familiar atmosphere. I felt she is the real professional and amazing soprano.
But during the Dinner time after the concert, she was like a normal lady like me.
She ate and talked and laughed.
Then I wen to see her "La Boheme" to Chicago,
At the first appearance as Mimi, I doubted my eyes.
Anna was sooo cute and looked just a young inocent lady.
How could she change and act and sing like that.
As Robert mentioned, it was the best "La Bohdme" I have ever seen.
I saw many "La Boheme" in my opera watching life, thus is the best one .
I can not compare with another day's performances by Anna, but I guess that day's "La Boheme" was the best one.
At the back stage, she appeared with earring wich I gave her in Veil on .
Anna was in a very hurry to cach the plane to Vienna, so she rushed to catch a taxi.
I rushed too to give her some present again.
Yes it is Keiko who was handing a paper bag just before Anna got into the taxi .
Thank you Anna tha you kept our promise to wear that earrings on.
Thank you Herbert for many photos.
ReplyDeleteThank you Robert for exact feeling you had was the same as I felt.