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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: S.F. Opera's ‘La Bohème' will make you feel all the emotions
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to see it again. Giacomo Puccini's 'La Bohème,' the most-performed and quite possibly the most-loved opera in the standard repertory, has opened San Francisco Opera's summer season with a bang. Under the baton of guest conductor Ramón Tebar, with snappy work by revival director Katherine M. Carter, this production at the War Memorial Opera House comes about as close to musical and dramatic perfection as you can get. Each of the singers in the cast has real star quality — more on that in a bit. Just as importantly, they form a superb ensemble with the split-second timing of great comedians. Sure, there are big, famous arias, but the effectiveness of 'La Bohème' depends on swift movement from incident to incident. During the opening-night performance on Tuesday, June 3, Tebar's flexible, generous conducting matched that timing and gave this sophisticated score, full of complex tempo and metrical changes, cohesion and tremendous momentum. Add in the magnificent playing of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, performing despite unresolved labor negotiations, and the evening was sheer magic. The basic story is uncomplicated: Boy (the poet Rodolfo) meets girl (the seamstress Mimì). They fall in love. She dies of tuberculosis, an incurable scourge in the 19th century. (If this sounds familiar, Verdi's 'La Traviata,' also a great repertory staple, has a similar trajectory, though a vastly different emotional profile.) In tenor Pene Pati and soprano Karen Chia-ling Ho, the company has an ideal pair of leads. Pati's natural charm and beautiful, easy sound light up everything he does — he was an adorable Nemorino in 2023's ' The Elixir of Love. ' Meanwhile, Ho's shyness and fragility at her character's first entrance on Tuesday grew into real strength over the course of the opera, supported by her big, dark and beautifully controlled voice. There was real chemistry between the two, and you could believe that they'd fallen in love over a lost key only minutes after meeting. That's the baseline drama in the opera: Will Mimì live or die? Will she and Rodolfo stay together or be driven apart by illness? The story of the painter Marcello (baritone Lucas Meachem) and sometime kept woman Musetta (soprano Andrea Carroll in a sparkling and very funny company debut) runs parallel. The couples pair off, split up, come together again. Meachem and Carroll made their characters' love and affection perfectly clear, as well as the fact that the emotional cycle is likely to repeat indefinitely. This Marcello can barely bring himself to curse at Musetta wandering off with a new man at the close of Act 3, an interesting and persuasive dramatic choice emphasizing their hopeless love for each other. Carroll's Musetta might be a bit of a witch ('Strega!' as Marcello shouts), but she's as kindly toward Mimì as Meachem's warmhearted and enormously sympathetic Marcello is toward Rodolfo. Rounding out the cast of bohemians are the philosopher Colline and the musician Schaunard. Romanian bass Bogdan Talos, in his company debut, sang Colline's aria to his old coat, about to be sold to buy medicine for the dying Mimì, with poignant, heart-wrenching intimacy. Baritone Samuel Kidd, a current Adler Fellow, integrated Schaunard seamlessly into the antics, projecting enormous sorrow even as he turns his back on the fading Mimì. Bass-baritone Dale Travis was riotous as the landlord Benoit, outwitted by the bohemians when he tries to collect overdue rent, and as Alcindoro, Musetta's hapless admirer — roles Travis has played numerous times at the Opera. Members of the San Francisco Girls and Boys Choruses enlivened the Act 2 Latin Quarter scene with enthusiastic acting and accurate singing, and the Opera Chorus brought its customary excellence to many moments. David Farley's efficient production design allows easy transitions from the bohemians' garret to different places around Paris. The main dwelling, modeled on the works of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, nonetheless seems a bit drab for a 19th century artist's studio. Regardless, Carter's direction brings a wealth of vivid interactions to crowd scenes and among the principals. Eight performances remain, divided between the opening-night singers and an enticing alternate cast for Rodolfo, Mimì, Marcello and Musetta. For a great afternoon or evening, get out your handkerchiefs and get yourself to the War Memorial Opera House.
Chicago Tribune
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: A Chicago ‘La Bohème' at Lyric Opera turns winter into spring into winter
Saturday's spring opener at the Lyric Opera of Chicago took place as a fool's spring gave way to the reality of the calendar, as a green sea of St. Patrick's Day revelers, clad for the hopes of April, discovered just how quickly March can turn frigid on you. The audience for 'La Bohème' entered the doors of the great opera house in one season and exited in entirely another. Giacomo Puccini's Mimì, who understood the power of seasonal change better than anyone in the operatic canon, surely would have sympathized, singing as she does about how loneliness is most acute in winter, when even the sun denies its companionship. She claims that the first kiss of April (from her lover? from the sun?) will belong to her. Not that such a day is ever promised. Still, Melanie Bacaling's staging of 'La Bohème' — this Rogers Park-born director's debut at anything like this level — certainly has its heart more in April than March, especially given the presence of a swath of Uniting Voices of Chicago singers (formerly the Chicago Children's Choir) joining the Lyric Opera Chorus and the optimistic take from its two stars, the American lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez, also a Chicago native, and the Samoan tenor Pene Pati. The latter makes a strikingly well-received Lyric debut, seemingly relishing every moment, every note, his voice akin to a pint of Guinness in a cozy pub, or a surprisingly sensual morning. The Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza understands what part the Lyric Orchestra must play here, and so it does. Pati's Rodolfo worries for Mimì, one discerns, but even in her final moments, there he is in the corner of the garret, smiling away, dreaming of a recovery that never comes. Pérez's Mimì doesn't seem to worry about seduction either way; in this production, Rodolfo is the calm from the storm of her life. The notion of refuge is there in how they sing to each other, and how they dance in the Parisian snow, two sunny dreamers, one better off than the other but both turning to La Vie Bohème as refugees from the harshness of the wintery world beyond the Café Momus. Under its former general director Anthony Freud, the Lyric pursued its post-pandemic recovery on twin tracks: a traditional experience here, paired with something that pushes the envelope there. The latter slot this spring is occupied by Missy Mazzoli's contemporary piece 'The Listeners,' opening March 30, and the former with this lush 'La Bohème,' new to Chicago but with sets by Gerard Howland created for the Los Angeles and Dallas Operas some years ago. Howland did add a 'Waiting for Godot'-like tree for the Parisian winter exterior, but even the falling snowflakes are lit by Duane Schuler as if this were 'White Christmas,' which I don't mean as a pejorative. Costumes originally were designed by the late British designer Peter J. Hall. Lyric, of course, has produced this most accessible of operatic titles — it was the source for Jonathan Larson's musical 'Rent' and any fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical repertory will hear familiar notes and chords — on and off for some 70 years. It has been a staple of the Wacker Drive repertoire since besuited and bedecked Chicagoans of the era of the first Mayor Daley came to dab their eyes. Freud clearly decided to lean into 'La Bohème's' entry-level popularity: there is a lobby exhibition of the piece's history at the Lyric and, more importantly, he predicted that the affection for the title would be a way to protect a new director like Bacaling, as well as to support a Chicago-born star (who is singing as Mimì several times around the world this year), an energetic young conductor, the Chicago-based newcomer Ian Rucker (who plays a pleasingly goofy Schaunard), and the 36-year-old Lyric favorite Will Liverman, who essays with some depth the jealous Marcello. It all paid off; the presence of the children's choir on stage was part of the reason for so many children in the house, I suspect, but it added to the sense of communal enjoyment as little kids watched and, one hopes, felt. The splendid soprano Gabriella Reyes seemed to catch this mood when she came out for her bow with Musetta's little dog, the two grinning from ear to ear, as was Peixin Chen, although the sharp-edged bass is the singer who, as Colline, gives the show at least some of its requisite gravitas. Puccini fans will leave well satisfied. 'I am always fine until that one chord,' I heard one departing woman say behind me as she protected herself against the sudden chill with the warmth of what sounded like an emotional capitulation with a familiar cue. La Vie Bohème, indeed. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'La Bohème' (3.5 stars) When: Through April 12 Where: Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Wacker Drive Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
CBS News
03-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Siblings torn apart by Argentina's dictatorship find each other
Mariana Eva Perez always knew she had a brother. Her parents, Patricia Roisinblit and José Manuel Pérez Rojo, were kidnapped by Argentine military death squads when she was a baby in October 1978. Patricia, a 25-year-old student in medical school, was 8-months pregnant at the time, and gave birth in one of the military's clandestine death camps known as ESMA, the Navy School of Mechanics. Before she was killed, she named her baby Rodolfo. In 2000, 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon reported on Mariana and her grandmother Rosa's decades-long search for Rodolfo. He was one of an estimated 500 babies born in death camps to mothers who were kept alive only long enough to give birth before being killed. A systematic campaign to snatch babies The babies, in a systematic campaign, were then given to childless military couples. The Argentine government and human rights organizations estimate that between 15,000 to 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during the junta's dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983. Miriam Lewin, an Argentine journalist who was kidnapped in 1977 when she was a student activist and later taken to ESMA, remembered Patricia Roisinblit after she gave birth to her son. "He was a beautiful and healthy baby boy, almost blond, and she told me, 'His name is going to be Rodolfo,' and she was smiling," Lewin told Bob Simon in 2000. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the search for Rodolfo Patricia Roisinblit was never seen again, nor was her husband. Her mother, Rosa Roisinblit, together with Mariana, spent years searching police stations, hospitals and orphanages for baby Rodolfo but never found him. Rosa, now 105, became a founding member of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who spent years demanding answers about their missing grandchildren. The group has found over 130 appropriated babies since the 1980s. When Bob Simon asked Mariana about her missing brother in 2000, she said: "I have a lot of hope that he comes to realize that he's been living a lie and that he would come looking for me." A tip that leads to finding her missing brother Just days after that interview with 60 Minutes, Mariana received a promising tip about a young man that might be her brother. His name was Guillermo Gomez, and he worked at a fast-food restaurant. "At that moment... I felt, I felt dissociated," Mariana recalled during an interview. "I had a feeling of peace and relief and that everything would be OK." She passed him a note that read: "My name is Eva Mariana Pérez, I am the daughter of desaparecidos. I'm looking for my brother. I think he might be you." Along with the note, she left him a photo of her parents. Guillermo was stunned when he saw the photo of Mariana's father, José. "It's like in a science fiction movie when you see a picture of yourself in the past," he said. "It was a picture of me in the past. I didn't feel that Mariana's father just looked similar, but identical." A photograph of a man that looked like him was one thing, but only a DNA test could confirm his real parentage. "I was very afraid," Guillermo said. "At that moment, I didn't know who I was." Reckoning with a new identity and family The test results were conclusive, he was Mariana's brother. But there was another truth to face: the couple that raised him, Francisco Gómez and his wife Dora Jofre, had not only appropriated him, but the man he called his father was likely involved in his real parents' kidnapping and deaths. "I was born in captivity like a zoo animal," Guillermo, who changed his last name to Pérez Roisinblit, said in an interview. "My mother was also kidnapped. I was separated after three days. I disappeared for 21 years. I am a contradiction because I am a disappeared person alive. I am a person who was missing without knowing I was missing." Guillermo said Gómez was abusive, and he had an unhappy childhood. He felt differently about Jofre, who he said always tried her best to take care of him. "I grew up being afraid of him, running away from him," Guillermo said. "And she, for a long time, was practically my whole world. She was the person I called mom." His relationship with his mother was a source of conflict with his newfound sister Mariana and grandmother Rosa. Guillermo didn't want Jofre to go to jail. But his sister and grandmother said it felt like a betrayal. They wanted consequences. "Every day, every morning, she knew she had stolen someone else's son," Marian said. "And I don't forgive that. They stole my brother and they stole him from me for the rest of my life." Jofre was tried and sentenced to three years imprisonment for Guillermo's abduction. In 2016, Guillermo faced Gomez, the man he once believed was his father, in court. When he took the witness stand, he made one final plea. "I told him I needed to stop being in constant mourning for the death of my parents and that I needed to know when it happened, who had been responsible for their deaths and where their remains are," Guillermo said. "And he chose to say nothing." Gómez was sentenced to life in prison. "I wish this had a happy ending." After the trial, the siblings presented a unified front with their grandmother Rosa, but their relationship floundered. They had little in common, apart from DNA. They were, after all, separated for two decades. There were also struggles familiar to many siblings: jealousies, resentments and issues with money. "Life isn't a movie. I wish it was a Hollywood production and this had a happy ending," Guillermo said. "Having been raised separated, not living together, we could never get over that distance between us. Guillermo is now a human rights lawyer and working with the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, taking up his grandmother's work to help find children who were stolen and appropriated during the dictatorship. Mariana is a writer, playwright and academic. Despite her difficult relationship with her brother, she's never regretted finding him. "What happened broke everything, so what's broken is broken," she said. "It's very difficult for us as a society to accept that it's broken forever. But it's always better to know the most painful truth than not knowing the truth at all."
CBS News
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Colorado audiences get a classic treat in Opera Colorado's La bohème
Opera Colorado is deep in rehearsals for it's production of La bohème, the iconic opera written by Giacomo Puccini in 1895. It's the story of four young friends living the bohemian lifestyle in Paris. There is a poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher. The opera follows the characters as they pursue their passions, eek out a living, fall in love, and face tragedy. "We see every aspect of their friendship from their laughter to their struggles, and we see everything kind of shift when Rodolfo, the poet, meets Mimi," said Raquel González, who sings Mimì in the Opera Colorado production. La bohème was first performed in Italy in 1896, but many of the themes of the stories hold true today. "It is a wonderful story. It's really fast paced. It's really funny in a lot of places, but it's really moving as well," said Kristine McIntyre, Director of the Opera Colorado production. La bohème includes some of the most recognizable music in opera, and the story has been retold in many ways including the movie, Moulin Rouge, and the musical, Rent. The Opera Colorado production is sung in Italian with English and Spanish subtitles at every seat. Opera Colorado's La bohème will be at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House for 5-nights only: February 22, 25, 27, 28 & March 2, 2025.
