The rescheduled date for Gulfshore Opera’s presentation of La Boheme is set for Sunday, Jan. 24 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW.
For this highly anticipated new production, Gulfshore Opera has hired a vibrant young director from California, and a creative team from across the United States to bring Puccini’s timeless classic to Southwest Florida.
In describing this original production, director Josh Shaw explains, “La Bohème is a timeless story with themes as relevant today, as they were in the original setting. Young people continue to face the same problems the Bohemians faced. In the late 1880s Paris was filled with a concentration of larger than life characters — Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others.
The Impressionist movement was in full swing with artists who rebelled against classical subject matter and embraced modernity, creating works that reflected the world in which they lived. It is easy to imagine Puccini’s Bohemians moving in the same circles as these greats. The colorful style of Van Gogh offers a vibrant canvas on which to paint Puccini’s masterpiece in a heightened, but believable setting.”
Set designer Ardean Landhuis, projections and lighting designer Tlaloc Lopez-Waterman and costume designers Steffanie Pearce and Amanda McGee are using the great impressionists as muses for their design concepts.
Much like the world of impressionism, the characters become more of a snapshot of a larger reality. Van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night (1888) becomes the inspiration and actually comes to life as the Café Momus in the Latin-Quarter of Paris on Christmas Eve.
Maestro Greg Ritchey will conduct a 30-piece orchestra, with a cast of nationally renowned singers.
Soprano Sarah Tucker and tenor Peter Lake perform the naïve lovers Mimì and Rodolfo. Sarah Tucker is fresh off a debut with the San Diego Opera, having previously performed at San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Santa Fe Opera and being a national semifinalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Peter Lake sang the role of Pinkerton in the acclaimed Japanese-English production of Madame Butterfly with the Pacific Opera Project and Opera in the Heights, directed by Josh Shaw. He has performed with the Savannah VOICE Festival and Natchez Festival.
Playing the hot and cold lovers Musetta and Marcello are Chelsea Lehnea and Kenneth Stavert. The Bohemians are rounded out by Coline Ramsey as Colline, and Mitchell Hutchings as Schaunard.
Tickets are available by visiting www.gulfshoreopera.org or www.bbmannpah.com or calling 239-529-3925.
