Chickens! Cultural Moment: La Bohème

The latest offering by the Saskatoon Opera is Puccini's La Bohème. Puccini's best known work (except maybe for Madame Butterfly) and considered one of the most romantic love stories in opera. It is arguably the most commonly performed Italian opera and has inspired several popular movies, plays, etc. including Rent and Moulin Rouge (actually a cross between La Boheme and La Traviata). Pop culture references that I know off the top of my head include The Simpsons (of course) and Kate and Leopold (who doesn't love Hugh Jackman?).

The story is actually based on the novel "Scènes de la Vie de Bohème" by Henri Murger. Murger's work enjoyed little initial popularity but a subsequent play based on the collection of stories increased exposure and demand. It inspired another opera called La Bohème by Ruggero Leoncavallo, which descended into relative obscurity while Puccini's work became one of the most popular operas of all time. The story is set in Paris in the 1840's and follows several struggling artists, particularly Rudolfo and to a lesser extent his friend Marcello and their respective loves Mimì and Musetta.

Unfortunately, my musical knowledge doesn't really extend to the intricacies of operatic performance (yet) so you'll all just have to be satisfied with my juvenile "them thar singy peoples made my eardy boneses happy" impressions as opposed to an intelligent critique of their prowess. That said, I think it was a delightful opera and I enjoyed it thoroughly on the whole. You know, while "the man" says this is in the running for most popular opera ever, I can't say I recognized any of the songs offhand. The "Sì, mi chiamano Mimì" song stands out in my memory because I thought it was funny (what's wrong with the name Lucia?). Similarly the story has a few parts along these lines that are nonsensical prattling on, playing, or running around, but it's funny and adds to the charm and feel of the thing I think. Anyway, the tenor that played Rudolfo (Christopher Bengochea) was also in Rigoletto as the Duke. I actually liked him much more in this role, it suited him better than the playboy Duke character and I enjoyed his singing more because of it. While I generally don't prefer sopranos, the one that played Mimì (Marianne Fiset) was excellent and Musetta (Karen Charlton) was good too (she was a hussy but Marcello deserved it) and the better actress of the two. There wasn't too much in the way of lower registers in this one, but the part of Marcello is a baritone (played by Alexander Dobson) and was enjoyable and fun to watch, he played his character well I thought. And remember, if you get to go to the performance, keep your eyes peeled for JT as a hilarious Parpignol (and doubling as one of the background guys too). Yay JT!

Now, since I haven't had a non-english Simpsons in a while, here is El Homer de Sevilla (The Homer of Seville - Simpsons season 19 episode 2). The reference to La Boheme happens about 8 minutes in):