 |
| La Boheme |
LA BOHEME is the seventh opera to be presented on the harbour in Sydney. It is an opera in 4 acts by Giacomo Puccini and was first presented in 1896.
La Boheme is presented by Opera Australia as the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, with much thanks to the financial support Dr Haruhisa Handa and the International Foundation of Arts and Culture.
The setting is glorious, with the opera performed on a special floating stage on Sydney Harbour, with the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the city skyscrapers in the background. The stage is two and a half times larger than any Australian indoor stage and it took 150 people to build it.
The brilliant set took 32 people, 6,000 hours to build, and includes two 15m and 18m high chimneys several 6m Paris heritage style lampposts.
The Opera Australia Orchestra, conducted by Brian Castles-Onion, was superb. The 51 musicians played in a custom-built studio called "The Underworld" under the stage.
 |
| La Boheme |
Dan Potra did an amazing job with the sets and costumes. They looked stunning and placed the audience in the heart of Paris. The wardrobe department took 7,500 hours to produce the costumes. The costumes used 400 metres of fabric, and used 560 props and 114 pairs of shoes. Parts of the opera looked like a fashion parade of expensive French clothes. This contrasted with the simple clothing worn by the Bohemian men, and the simple jeans worn by Mimi in her final scene.The Video Designer, Marco Devetak, used 24 large LCD panels at the rear of the stage to effectively display videos of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, and elements of the weather.
 |
| La Boheme |
Tony David Cray, the Sound Designer, produced remarkably clear amplification of the singers and musicians through the 223 speakers. The sound seems to get better each year, and this year it was spot on.
Matthew Marshall, the Lighting Designer, swathed the stage in soft and brilliant lighting with the 230 moving lights used to light up the stage.
La Boheme is directed by Andy Morton. The setting of the opera was moved forward to the cold winter of 1968.
La Bohme is set in Paris and focuses on ordinary people and their lives. It revolves around several Bohemian men, their work and love interests and the civil unrest and demonstrations of the time. It is a love story and a tragedy. The poor Bohemian men include a poet, musician, painter and a philosopher. Two find love, but jealousy, passion and sickness take their toll.
 |
| La Boheme |
The first half of La Bohme was more of a character introduction, with the pairing up of people as they fell in love. The second half was the ending of these love relationships. The key characteristic of operas is the tragic death of one of the lead characters at the end of the performance. In La Boheme, it is not by poison, stabbing or some other tragic means of death, but by sickness. A rather anti-climax, and La Bohme ended. I was hoping that the opera would keep on going a bit longer for a more dramatic ending, but no, that was the conclusion of the performance. For those who want a fuller understanding of La Boheme, a Cheat Sheet is offered on the
La Boheme website.
 |
| La Boheme |
The main attraction for me of attending the Handa Opera on the Harbour is the special effects used that can only be done outdoors and not inside the Sydney Opera House. The fireworks, the falling of fake snow from six snow machines, and the cranes lowering the large props of the destroyed vehicles added to the performance. A clown, with colourful helium balloons above him, standing in a tin can, arrived and was whisked away by the cranes. I'm not sure how that fitted into the story of La Bohme, but it certainly did look good.
The cast of 54 people includes 10 principals, 38 chorus members, and 6 actors. Some of the lead roles are shared by two people on a different night due to the exhausting nature of the singing. All the singers on the night I saw La Boheme were brilliant. I was amazed by the powerful voices they had, and how long they could stretch out some of the notes. My daughter, a music teacher, accompanied me on the night. She was very impressed with the singing, and said she could not notice any mistakes anywhere throughout the performance.
 |
| La Boheme |
La Boheme has no spoken words in it. It is all poetry set to music. It is sung in Italian, but fortunately had English subtitles displayed on 4 screens in front of the stage. Subtitles were also in Chinese.
La Boheme is a wonderful night out. Arrive early and enjoy the pop-up bars and restaurants on site.
Even if you don't understand all the complexities of the Opera, you will be dazzled by its brilliant stage and setting on Sydney Harbour.
La Bohme will be performed at Mrs Macquaries Chair on Sydney Harbour up until 22 April, so get in early to sect tickets on your preferred viewing night.
Tickets can be purchased on the website:
https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/la-boheme-on-sydney-harbour
No comments:
Post a Comment