La Bohème

After spending years in the State Theatre’s set storage, Chris Alexander’s timeless production was revived and returned to the stage in 2019. A huge success: The press attested “no expiration date” and the cast presented itself as a “company of strong voices and joyful performances” – a wonderful debut for the Italian voices in the ensemble of the Hanover State Opera.

La Bohéme presents a scenario of apparent opera magic, full of a poetry ranging between romantic cliché and the realism of bitter poverty. With unquenchable pleasure and nostalgic melancholy, opera audiences around the world have followed the tragic love story between Rodolfo, an ambitious yet unsuccessful novelist, and the simple seamstress Mimì. The unparalleled popularity of the opera and its vivid contemporary appeal are due to the incredible beauty of Puccini’s melodies. His music manages to characterise the atmosphere of the Parisian bohemia with great detail and without false sentiment. Lyrical episodes are sketched realistically and contrasted with sometimes intense, sometimes humorous, tumultuous scenes. And everything is crowned by Puccini’s “great pain in small souls”: the yearning for a little bit of happiness in real life, turned into music.