Puccini - La Boheme (Welser-Moest, Zurich Opera House Orch.) DVD

Puccini based his opera La bohme on the autobiographical novel ""Scnes de la vie de Bohme"" by Henri Murger. The novel reminded him of his own bohemian existence as an impoverished student at the conservatory in Milan. During the composition process Puccini learned that Ruggero Leoncavallo was also working on turning the novel into an opera and writing his own libretto for it. The two composers swiftly became rivals but Puccini managed to finish his opera first which premiered over a year before Leoncavallo's version. The way in which Puccini managed to combine comedy... and tragedy in this opera is superb and Franz Welser-Mst's conducting aims to really bring out the libretto. The Belgian director of this production Philippe Sireuil was heavily inspired by Aki Kaurismki's film version of Henri Murger's novel ""Scnes de la vie de Bohme"". Kaurismki's great melancholic sensitive and totally unpretentious cinematic impressions led Sireuil to picture the state of a ""carefree poverty"" in which the bohemian students live on the edge of society. Stage designer Vincent Lamaire has been working closely with Sireuil for years and the key aspect in the set design for both of them was to place the characters in completely realistic surroundings. Furniture and props are only used very sparingly. [show more]

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