La bohème 2023 Programme

THE MANY FACES OF OPERA
DIEGO FASCIATI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Welcome to Irish National Opera’s production of the perennially
beloved tear-jerker that is Giacomo Puccini’s first great hit, La
bohème. I must admit that the first time I saw this opera, in a
televised version, I was disappointed. I thought the plot boring and
pointless. I was clearly too young to grasp the emotional weight
of the music or empathise with the complexities of the storm of
passion, jealousy and loss that is romantic love. But musical tastes
and emotional awareness mature over time for most of us, and now
I find myself believing that La bohème is Puccini’s masterpiece.
The opera finds its origins in a series of individually-published short
stories in a literary magazine in 1840s Paris, under the heading
Scènes de la bohème. These were adapted into a play, La vie de la
bohème. The remarkable success of the play led to publication of the
stories in a single volume, a novel of sorts, titled Scènes de la vie de
bohème. The Italian playwright/poet duo of Luigi Illica and Giuseppe
Giacosa adapted this into an extraordinary libretto, condensing stories
and characters into a work that allowed Puccini’s music to infuse
them with emotion writ large. The work is a showcase of Puccini’s
skills in music and theatre. He can create everything and anything
through his music, from the dizzying effect of swirling crowd scenes
to intimate moments calculated to break your heart.
La bohème is our third production of a Puccini opera, following Tosca
in 2022, with the highy-charged Sinéad Campbell-Wallace in the
harrowing title role, and Madama Butterfly in 2019, which starred
tonight’s Mimì, the extraordinarily affecting soprano Celine Byrne, in
the title role. And it is INO’s 32nd live opera production since its birth
in 2018, and that’s not counting our concerts, online events, outdoor
street art operas, opera films, and award-winning VR community
opera. It’s quite an achievement, I think you’ll agree, especially when
you factor in the various pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions
we all endured for almost two years. We are also proud of another
statistic.To date, we have presented our work in 47 different locations
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