Daria Somers and Dane Suarez as Mimi and Rudolfo (photo by Martha Benedict, courtesy Pacific Opera Project)
What more can be said about La Bohéme? Puccini’s romantic masterpiece of comedy, tragedy and beautiful music is the surely the most popular and often produced opera in the canon. Given this ubiquity, is fair also to ask what more can be said with Bohéme as well? Well, Pacific Opera Project offers a slightly cheeky answer that question with their final opera of the 2017 season, a revival of their production La Bohéme: AKA “The Hipsters,” first produced in 2012. Sung in the original Italian, the action is transported from 19th century Paris to contemporary L.A with POP’s own “cleverly ironic” English translation in the supertitles. Bohemians, Hipsters: plus ça change….
Performances run December 8, 9, 14, 15, 16 at 8:00 p.m. at The Highland Park Ebell Club. The cast finds several of the singers reprising their roles from previous productions, including the three principal roles: sopranos Daria Somers (Mimi) and Katherine Giaquinto (musetta) and tenor Dane Suarez (Rudolfo). Rounding out the cast are Alex DeSocio (Marcello), E. Scott Levin(Schaunard), Keith Colclough (Colline), and William Grundler (Benoit, Alcinodoro, Parpignol). POP’s Music Director Parisa Zaeri and Artistic Director Josh Shaw direct the music and staging.
La Bohéme AKA “The Hipsters”by Giacomo Puccini. Presented by Pacific Opera Project, December 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 8 pm. Highland Park Ebell Club, 131 S. Avenue 57, Los Angeles, CA 90042. (323)739-6122. Website
