Visitors to the Sydney Opera House this summer will have the opportunity to enjoy Gale Edwards’ much loved production of Puccini’s La Bohème for the very last time as Opera Australia announces 2022 will be its final Sydney season.
The first opera Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini commissioned for OA, this beloved telling of Puccini’s opera was created by the dream team of internationally renowned director Gale Edwards, OAM-recipient set designer Brian Thomson, Helpmann Award-winning costume designer Julie Lynch and acclaimed lighting designer John Rayment.
“This La Bohème was so well-received when it premiered in 2011 that we’ve started almost every year with it since,” said Lyndon. “It quickly became a crowd favourite and now feels familiar and brings a sense of comfort, which is something we all need right now.”
“I wanted to give our audiences the chance to see it one more time, before we present a new production in 2023,” he added.
Running in the Joan Sutherland Theatre this January, this popular production will have been performed 183 times across the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne by the time it closes on 4 February 20222.
Stellar Italian soprano Valeria Sepe will bring the role of Mimì to life opposite internationally successful Australian-Chinese tenor Kang Wang as the poet Rodolfo, both reprising their characters from OA’s 2020 season.
Opera Australia principal singers Julie Lea Goodwin will reprise her successful role as Musetta and Haotian Qi will make his role debut as Marcello. Shane Lowrencev, Richard Anderson, Andrew Moran, Clifford Plumpton, Malcolm Ede and Benjamin Rasheed complete the cast.
Italian maestro Lorenzo Passerini will conduct the first half of the opera’s 2022 run, followed by outstanding Australian conductor Paul Fitzsimon, leading the Opera Australia Orchestra, Opera Australia Chorus and Children’s Chorus.
Set in 1930s Berlin, La Bohème explores the lives of four bohemians as they become entangled through love, jealousy and loss. Puccini’s music will soar, expressing what words alone cannot, as the curtain rises on Gale Edwards’ La Bohème one last time.
Conductors: Lorenzo Passerini, Paul Fitzsimon | Director & Choreographer: Gale Edwards | Featuring: Valeria Sepe, Kang Wang, Julie Lea Goodwin, Haotian Qi, Shane Lowrencev, Richard Anderson, Andrew Moran, Clifford Plumpton, Malcolm Ede, Benjamin Rasheed, Opera Australia Chorus, Opera Australia Children’s Chorus, Opera Australia Orchestra | Revival Director: Shaun Rennie | Set Designer: Brian Thomson | Costume Designer: Julie Lynch | Lighting Designer: John Rayment
La Bohème
Joan Sutherland Theatre – Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney
Season: 4 January – 4 February 2022
Information and Bookings: www.opera.org.au
Image: The Cast of Opera Australia’s 2020 production of La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House – photo by Prudence Upton