The beauty of 19th-century Paris, and the exciting lives of young artists in the City of Lights, will return to the Israeli Opera Tel Aviv this month with a revival of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. Adapted from the 1851 novel Scenes of Bohemian Life by Henri Murger, Puccini’s version soared to hold a unique place in the hearts of audiences ever since it was first performed in 1896.
Mimi (soprano Alla Vasilevitsky) is a naive seamstress who knocks on the door of her neighbor, the poet Rodolfo (tenor Valentin Dytiuk) requesting matches. Rodolfo is part of a merry group of creative types: the painter Marcello (baritone Mario Cassi), the musician Schaunard (baritone Julien van Mellaerts ), and Colline, a philosopher (bass Bálint Szabó).
These four friends nearly starve to death in the harsh city – the audience first meets them when they burn a play in the stove to keep warm in winter – yet they manage to have a good time regardless.
“To be a bohemian means to be merry with what is available,” revival director Regina Alexandrovskaya told The Jerusalem Post. “To be happy despite all that is happening around you.
“They are able to be playful with the reality that is all around them no matter what. To continue living life despite all hardships,” she added.
Mimi’s first aria, “Sì. Mi Chiamano Mimì” (“Yes, they call me Mimi”) presents this grand theme. Alone in her small, unheated room, she can look at the first rays of spring and believe it is the sun’s special kiss to her alone.
“As an embroider of flowers, she is a sensitive and gentle person who sees the goodness in all things and rejoices in them,” Vasilevitsky told the Post.
Having performed the role eight years ago, Vasilevitsky sees some resemblance between Mimi’s rosy outlook on life and the life of an opera singer.
“We need to keep this ability, to inhabit our own protected sphere, so that the audience that comes to the opera can unwind and enjoy a repose from their own troubling thoughts,” she added.
She understands that Mimi, who already had an eye on Rodolfo and his pals, is using the matches as a ploy to enter his life.
ALEXANDROVSKAYA pointed out that in the novel, Rodolfo realizes that he lacks the means to care for the ailing Mimi and pushes her into the arms of a wealthier man. However, that person is not a bohemian, and breaks up with Mimi the moment he realizes she is ill.
It is the imaginative, artistic souls who are willing to sacrifice to save her, hoping she will be able to live until spring comes.
In this group is the singer Musetta (soprano Yael Levita), who is the opposite of Mimi. If Mimi is naive and a little shy, Musetta is bold and very worldly. A sometimes lover of Marcello, Musetta toys with wealthy men to gain what she wants out of life.
“She is not a superficial woman; she is quite smart but she wants to lead a good life and she is not ashamed of it,” Levita shared.
Unlike the other characters, who write, paint, or play instruments, “her art is living, and this is why she can have such strong emotions,” she explained. The others toy with how they perceive the world; Musetta toys with the world itself.
'Profound moment'
There is a moment in this opera when the orchestra stops, everything is silent, and Musetta makes a decision. It is a profound moment and, in a way, a key scene after which the characters are unable to maintain their playful illusions about the world quite in the same way.
When she first performed as Mimi, Vasilevitsky’s son Semion was less than a year old. As he got older, “he asked me once why I always die on stage,” she joyfully related.
“He really liked it when, in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, I played the part of the grim reaper and took others to their own death for a change.”
La Bohème, by Giacomo Puccini, will premiere at Tel Aviv’s Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech Street, on Sunday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m.; eight additional performances are scheduled after that date. The final show is on Thursday, April 3, at 6 p.m. Two and a half hours, including intermission. Italian with Hebrew and English subtitles. NIS 273-NIS 467 per ticket. Call (03) 692-7777 for more information.