Just in time for the November 29th centenary of the death of Giacomo Puccini, Charleston Opera Theater is presenting what's not only the most renowned opera by the Italian composer but one of the most famous and beloved operas, period. La bohème is coming to the stage of the Holy City’s Sottile Theatre for two performances: the evening of Friday, Nov. 22nd and the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 24th.
In this Sonatas & Soundscapes interview that aired Wednesday, Nov. 20th, South Carolina Public Radio's Bradley Fuller joined Charleston Opera Theater Music Director Wojciech (Wojtek) Milewski via remote interview to learn more about the work and what has contributed to its enduring fame.
TRANSCRIPT:
FULLER: Wojtek, thanks so much for joining me!
MILEWSKI: Thank you so much for having us!
FULLER: Since its premiere in 1896, La bohème has enjoyed a place among the greatest and most frequently performed operas of all time. And I’ve found that, when it comes to these favorite operas—as with classics in the field of literature—some people tend to say “Oh, well, you know, everyone knows how that goes,” while others say “Actually, no, I'm not too familiar with that.” So, without providing too many spoilers for those who don't know the work so well—and maybe even are seeing it for the first time through Charleston Opera Theater—could you give an overview of La bohème? Of basically what it's about?
MILEWSKI: Absolutely, yeah. So La bohème is, I hate to say, a collection of stories, but it truly sort of is. It's a series of vignettes from the life of Bohemians, essentially. It was based on a novel by French writer Henri Murger The Scenes of Bohemian Life, which was then turned into a play in 1848. From that play, we've gathered enough ammunition to sort of create a libretto for an opera, which is exactly what happened. And so, this libretto for La bohème was taken from the play—taken from The Scenes of Bohemian Life—which is sort of an autobiographical account of a lot of these characters. It tells you the various situations they found themselves in, how life was in Paris and France during that time, and etc., etc.
So really, many of the characters in La boheme are based on real-life people and they have a basis in real-time authors and musicians—some of them truly Bohemians. Even the author Murger really finds in himself many parallels between his life and Rodolfo, the main character. So really the opera of La bohème is a composite of all these different scenes and characters, and really focuses on the life of a few of them—sort of the gang of four friends: Rodolfo, Marcello, Schaunard, and Colline, and their sort of day-to-day activities as they live together and hang around Paris in the Latin quarter in 1830.
But also, of course, the love story between Rodolfo and Mimì. And, as they meet at the end of Act 1, unexpectedly they meet and fall in love, have a great time at the Café Momus in Act 2 on a bustling Christmas Eve. And, of course, we get to meet Musetta who is Marcello's love interest and their whole situation unfolds. I’ll call it a situation and leave it at that.
But we sort of follow their love stories and it really becomes about that. As we navigate the waters of Acts 2, 3 and 4, we focus on the love stories of Marcello, Musetta and also Rodolfo, Mimi, and how differently those stories go. Of course, as we start going later into the opera we start seeing that some trouble is a-brewing. Mimì, of course, is not well—which is another parallel to real life. And, I don't want to give too many spoilers away for Act 4, but suffice it to say it leads to some of the most dramatic and beautiful music that Puccini ever wrote.
FULLER: What do you think has contributed to this opera's broad appeal with audiences?
MILEWSKI: I think certainly the music is a big factor, because this opera is sort of a greatest hits of its own. It seems that every act has pieces in it that are just famous and resonate with audiences. And you're familiar with them more than you probably even realize. For example the end of Act 1, you we hear the aria from Rodolfo “Che gelida manina” which almost directly goes into Mimi's favorite famous aria “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì,” which then almost directly goes into their beautiful love duet to end Act 1 “O soave fanciulla.” So it's sort of like you never miss a beat—there's always some beautiful melody or duet or aria that you're being presented with and you keep going through thinking “My goodness, yes, I know this. Oh yes, I know this piece as well.”
But that also speaks to Puccini's writing style and his ability to almost hide melodies and then bring them back later, so that you always have this sense of “Oh yes, I've heard this somewhere before.” A good example of this is actually in the middle of Act 1: Schaunard begins to sing about “Oh, the beautiful fried foods at the at the street that we’re going to see at the Café Momus! Oh my gosh, I can't wait to get all this amazing food—can you imagine what we're going to buy?” And suddenly, Puccini puts in the music from the beginning of Act 2 as the backdrop for him saying all these things. And so we're presented with this Act 2 music which then actually comes back and we hear it in full force. This is something that comes back across over the course of the entire opera.
And Puccini was sort of a master at giving us these little nuggets of music and then bringing them back in the moments of greatest emotional height, for lack of a better word, or resonance. And so you see a lot of these moments where he'll give you little motives for each character. The famous one is the Schaunard big scale going up [singing] “ba ba ba ba ba baaa, ba ba ba baa…” and that’s sort of Schaunard’s entrance music. Anytime it comes back in the opera we sort of know “Ah, this is Schaunard's music.”
And the same thing can be said about Rodolfo—his very first entrance becomes his music. This arpeggio [singing] “Nei cieli bigi”—this four note motive becomes sort of his entrance music throughout the course of the entire opera. So what Puccini does beautifully is present you with not only incredibly gorgeous and satisfying melodies, but also hides them in such a beautiful way, that when they actually are presented to you, it doesn't matter if you're hearing it for the first time or the 50th, you feel connected to it.
FULLER: You've clearly spent some time studying the score and the libretto to this work. Have you conducted La bohème before, or will this be your first time?
MILEWSKI: I think it's important that one that spends as much time as humanly possible with a score like Bohème because every bar seems to be full of information. And we have had so many great conversations in rehearsals about seemingly every measure of music because there's just so much depth in it. This is going to be my first full Bohème on the podium, but of course as a coach and as a pianist I've played through this show many times. So I'm really looking forward to the opportunity of being on the podium with the CSO [Charleston Symphony Orchestra] for this production.
FULLER: Speaking of fullness, I understand that Charleston Opera Theater is more or less pulling out all of the stops for this staging of Bohème?
MIELWSKI: Absolutely. We are really excited to partner with the Charleston Symphony, and they are going to be in the pit with us for this production. We have an orchestra 43 that will be performing there. We also have a chorus that is comprised of community members, students, some professional singers, and that chorus is numbering 36 singers in it. We also, as part of the production, have a banda at the end of Act 2—the famous street scene, a big military band comes through. We actually do have our own banda coming through on stage.
We're also partnering with the Palmetto Youth Chorus as well to have the children's chorus scene in there as well. We're going to have 15 kids from the Youth Chorus there. All in all, all things considered, we have over 110 performers in this production of La bohème. So it's going to be a really, really grand spectacle. Which is something that both Harold and I truly believe in—is to create this really grand product, because it's really what Puccini intended. And we want to make sure that we present this beautiful tapestry of a holiday season and a street scene that seems like a bustling street scene to sort of pay homage to Puccini's intentions.
FULLER: That would be Harold Meers, the Executive Director of Charleston Opera Theater?
MILEWSKI: That is correct, yes.
FULLER: We're quickly approaching the 100th anniversary of the death of Puccini himself. November 29th of this year will be that anniversary. What do you hope an audience in 2024 South Carolina can take away from this masterwork of the great Italian composer?
MILEWSKI: I think my biggest hope is that people walk away from this production moved, having had an experience. This is the opera that really got me into opera, period. I was, actually, sort of a latecomer to opera, and I didn't really discover it until I was in my late teens, early 20s. And it was La bohème—it was a performance of La bohème at the Met. And I didn't really know what to expect. And so I had just come home for holiday break and I bought a ticket to go see it.
And I remember to this day the feelings and the emotions I had sitting in that seat. The opera is so relatable on so many levels. We can see parts of ourselves described in each of these characters. The opera's style and the way it's written in this verismo way is meant to represent real life and the hardship of real life. But even the joy of having nothing but being truly happy—which is what sort of the four friends give us and tell us the story of in the beginning of Act 1. They don't really have much. They barely have enough to make a fire, but they're all happy and they're all making the best of it.
And I think we can relate to moments of this. We can relate to Mimì’s character and the difficulty of relationships, needing to end a relationship for one reason or another. We see parallels in every character in the show, which I think makes it so profound. And it's one of my favorite things about opera in general but specifically about this show, about La bohème. And I really, truly hope that on this anniversary of Puccini's death that we can really take that away and come away from this opera having a truly profound experience.
FULLER: Wojtek, thanks so much for sharing not only your perspective into this work but also your passion for it. It's been great speaking today.
MILEWSKI: Thank you so much for having me it's been an absolute joy to talk about this opera. I cannot wait to have this opera performed.
More information can be found at https://www.charlestonoperatheater.org/
Charleston Opera Theater is a financial supporter of South Carolina Public Radio.
