Àlex Ollé re-reads Puccini
Under the direction of Ollé, the Liceu is hosting a bold version of the opera La Bohème, with tenor Atalla Ayan and soprano Anita Hartig, among other performers.
There have been 271 different performances of La Bohème at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. It was first performed at the Barcelona opera house on 10 April 1898, only two years and two months after its world premiere in Turin. However, it is most likely that none of the versions that have been performed at Liceu resembles the one that will take the stage during June and July. Àlex Ollé, one of the artistic directors of La Fura dels Baus, is this version's stage director, and the program defines the re-reading of Giacomo Puccini's classic as "audacious." Ollé sets the scene in a working-class neighbourhood, “the backcloth to this hankering for bygone years, for that fleeting moment when Mimì and Rodolfo were happy.”
La Bohème is an opera in four scenes, with libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica and based on Henri Murger's book Scènes de la vie de Bohème. The performances, starting on Monday, 14 June, have Giampaolo Bisanti as musical director, Alfons Flores as set designer, and Lluc Castells in charge of the costumes. The main characters will be played by tenors Atalla Ayan and Giorgio Berrugi, alternating in the sessions as Rodolfo, sopranos Anita Hartig, Maria Teresa Leva and Ariana González as Mimì, and baritones Toni Marsol and Josep-Ramon Olivé as Schaunard.
Further information and tickets can be found at this link.