Not a dry eye in the house – the world’s most popular opera comes to town

After the triumph of last season’s concert performance of Die Fledermaus, The Cambridge Philharmonic society is performing the world’s most popular opera, Puccini’s La Bohème in concert, with international soloists, a full orchestra and chorus.

When, in the darkened loft where he lives with his bohemian companions, the poet Rodolfo first touches the hand of the beautiful seamstress Mimi, the song of wonder and introduction he sings (your tiny hand is frozen) is perhaps the most famous operatic aria ever written. It is lush, romantic and piercingly beautiful, and Mimi’s reply, telling him all about herself, is equally beautiful. By the end of the first act, as they leave to join Rodolfo’s friends at the Café Momus for a night of fun and festivities the struggling artists can barely afford, they are head over heels in love. Nothing, surely, can go wrong.

La Bohème was loosely based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henry Murger who described the subject matter of his novel as “le stage de la vie artistique; c'est la préface de l'Académie, de l'Hôtel-Dieu ou de la Morgue” (a stage in artistic life, a preface to the academy, the hospital or death) – a kind of 19th century version of the hippie dream.

And what a dream! In Puccini’s opera, Rodolfo and his friends live the carefree penniless lives of exuberant young artists. Marcello the painter (Rodolfo’s friend and flatmate) has a beautiful ex-girlfriend Musetta, who in a blazing act 2 aria lights up the stage with her glorious fun and sensuality – all at the expense of her aging lover. What fun!

But things can and do go wrong. Marcello and Musetta argue all the time. Rodolfo and Mimi’s intense passion doesn’t last even though we know (despite their apparent cluelessness) that they still love each other. And when in the last act, she turns up in that communal loft, brought in by Musetta who has found the abandoned seamstress sick and unhappy on the streets, it is clear to everyone that she is dying. Marcello, Musetta and their artist friends run to sell their last belongings to buy medicines, while Mimi and Rodolfo rediscover their love. But it is, of course (this is opera, after all) too late. Mimi dies and Rodolfo, in a great heartwrenching cry of grief, realises what he has lost as the curtain falls.

And if you can listen to all that without shedding a tear, there is no romance in you! Especially since Mimi will be sung by Linda Richardson, a principal with English National Opera, and Rodolfo is Bonaventura Bottone ‘every inch the lusty Rodolfo’, according to review in a Sydney newspaper. And the Cambridge Philharmonic Society is thrilled to welcome back Tinuke Olafimihan who thrilled audiences in the Philharmonic’s last operatic outing with her beautiful singing and effervescent wit.

Don’t miss your chance to laugh and love and cry, just a little, at this sweet story, wrapped, as it is, in the most romantic operatic score ever composed.

West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, Saturday 19th December 2009, 7.30 pm.
Conductor: Timothy Redmond
Tickets £12, £18, £24 (subscription discount available)
Cambridge Arts Theatre Box Office (01223 503333) or online at www.cam-phil.org.uk

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