San Fransisco Production News Articles
San
Francisco loved 'La Boheme,' now, will it play on Broadway?
Michael Kuchwara, Cleveland.com
22 November 2002
New York- Baz Luhrmann is upfront about the
challenge: "Bringing Italian opera to Broadway is not the easiest way to have a
hit," he says with a laugh.
"I'm used to it. Everything I've ever made has been an enormous risk - with people
saying, 'Are you crazy?' I'm not that heroic or brave. But there are things that for very
personal and vivid reasons I want to go and do."
The 40-year-old Australian director has made a
name for himself with such films as the high-energy "Strictly Ballroom," a
punkish, pop-flavored "Romeo and Juliet" and the even more wildly extravagant
"Moulin Rouge."
Now he's coming to New York with a $6.5 million populist production of "La
Boheme," plunked down in 1950s Paris, sung in the original Italian (with English
surtitles) and starring a cast of youthful, sexy singers who could surprise both opera
purists and Broadway show folk.
" 'La Boheme' really was the television of its time. It plays to the child and to the
adult," the director says. "And if you are looking to play to everyone, you are
not going to find them in a state theater or an opera house. You are going to find them on
Broadway."
Hits and flops
Opera has had an odd, fitful history on Broadway.
Disney's pop version of "Aida," with a score by Elton John and Tim Rice, has
been a considerable hit, still running after more than two years. But then there was
"My Darlin' Aida" (1952), which time-traveled Verdi's melodies to the Civil War.
It lasted three months.
Contemporary opera composers have had mixed success. Gian Carlo Menotti scored with two
productions - a double bill of "The Telephone" and "The Medium" (1947)
that ran for more than 200 performances and "The Consul" (1950), which lasted
for eight months and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle prize for best musical of the
season.
Kurt Weill's "Street Scene" (1947) and Marc Blitzstein's "Regina,"
based on "The Little Foxes," both flopped on Broadway but later had runs in
opera houses around the world.
Producers hope "La Boheme" will do better. Advance ticket sales are strong,
although the producers declined to reveal exact figures. They started to climb after the
theater's box office opened in October and after television stations in the New York area
began showing a very stylized, 30-second commercial directed by Luhrmann, his first.
Obsessed
Luhrmann sits in the minimalist penthouse of a midtown Manhattan hotel, whose spartan
decor can only be described as mausoleum chic. Lighted votive candles on the floor next to
a fireplace give a vaguely monastic feel to the room.
The boyish director, sporting unruly blond hair, supplies his own ebullience. Dressed in
the ubiquitous black - black pants, black jacket and black shoes - plus a formal white
shirt and the required white T-shirt peeking through, he radiates a confidence that is
disarming.
But then, a conversation with Luhrmann does not suffer from silences. Ask a question, and
he's off and running, sometimes in several directions at once. In a flash, you understand
and appreciate where all the exuberant excesses of "Moulin Rouge" came from.
The director has been obsessed with "La Boheme" for a long time. He staged it in
1990 at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was that version producers Jeffrey Seller
and Kevin McCollum saw on American public television when they were working on another
version of Puccini's opera, a little something called "Rent."
"They used it as an example of how 'Rent' should be," Luhrmann says.
"I agreed that we should revisit 'La Boheme' and deal with the issue that we began
with years ago, which is addressing this work as if it were being done for the first
time."
A grand turnout
So far, the results have been encouraging. The production was rapturously received by both
critics and audiences during its fall tryout in San Francisco. It quickly sold out, and
Luhrmann was pleased by the people he reached. Some two-thirds were non-operagoers.
"There was no demographic," he says. "One of the beautiful things happening
was fathers taking their kids and telling them the story. But then there were groovy,
young 18-year-olds, people on date nights, and lots of old ladies in the audience,
too."
But that hasn't stopped the perfectionist Luhrmann from fine-tuning the show, which has
settings designed by his wife, Catherine Martin, a woman he refers to affectionately as
C.M.
So he's spending much of his time at the Broadway Theatre, where "La Boheme"
begins preview performances next Friday, in preparation for an opening on Dec. 8.
It took him two years to find the right cast for Puccini's tale of starving artists and
doomed romance in late 19th-century Paris. Luhrmann's staff auditioned more than 2,000
singers in London, New York and Milan, Italy.
"I worked with 200 singers myself," he says. "It nearly wiped me out."
He settled on three sets of Mimis and Rodolfos who star in the production.
"These are not big-voiced, mature performers, but I did have three requirements: one,
that they could sing it; two, that they could act it; and three, that they looked like the
characters," he says.
"And what I did do, because I didn't want them to have a generic look, was make sure
they didn't look alike. For example, one Rodolfo is 6 foot tall and blond, classically
romantic; another is very James Dean-like and energetic. They give quite different
interpretations. They deliver the same promise but with a different nuance."
And in San Francisco, the production received exactly the same enthusiastic reception no
matter who performed, Luhrmann says.
Luhrmann projects an evangelic spirit as he warms to talking about how he works.
"At first, these things are my personal gesture," he says.
Then he talks things out with his wife.
"She is my soul mate," he says. "Finally, though, I have to make the
decision, because I am the captain."
After "La Boheme" opens, Luhrmann plans to take some time off before plunging
ahead next year with a new project, his film about Alexander the Great, a movie he has
been planning for a decade. Plus there are stage versions of both "Strictly
Ballroom" and "Moulin Rouge" in the works. But don't look for them any time
soon.
"I don't rush things," he says.
________________________________
Baz
Luhrmann's La Bohème, a Hit in San Francisco, Prepares to Move to Broadway
By David Wiegand,Adante
29 October 2002
Opera traditionalists may have shuddered in
terror at the news that Baz Luhrmann was bringing La Bohème to Broadway, but the
40-year-old director of Moulin Rouge has heard it all before. In 1990, Luhrmann
encountered similar anxiety when he was readying his first Bohème for its premiere at the
Sydney Opera House.
"On opening night, though, Dame Joan [Sutherland] was in the audience and she was the
first person to jump to her feet to applaud," he says.
Pleasing both neophytes and regular operagoers, that production returned for two more
sold-out runs in Sydney and was recorded for video in 1993. Now Luhrmann is updating his
original concept in a $6.5 million Bohème, which will open at New York's Broadway Theater
later this fall after a six-week tryout in San Francisco.
Bohème opened on 1 October at San Francisco's jewel-box Curran Theatre. While the first
two weeks of performances were not called previews, critics weren't allowed in until a
Hollywood-style opening on 15 October, when the audience included actors Nicole Kidman,
Kevin Spacey and Andy Garcia as well as mezzo Frederica von Stade. The reviews were mostly
raves; more to the point, several critics took pains to assure opera-lovers that Luhrmann,
in his drive to broaden Bohème's accessibility to new audiences, had remained faithful to
Puccini's score.
He's also remained faithful to the spirit of the libretto, if not the letter: Phrases like
"I'm freezing my ass off" and "bullshit," which can be seen in the
supertitles, are not literal translations of Giuseppe Giacosa's and Luigi Illica's words,
but they ring true in this staging of the opera, which (like the Sydney adaptation) is set
in 1957. Traditionalists' feathers may be more ruffled by another departure: Lurhmann's
young stars are miked.
The enormous sets, which spill out beyond the proscenium of the Curran, were designed by
Luhrmann's wife, Oscar winner Catherine Martin, who also co-designed the costumes with
Angus Strathie. Scene changes, which took an agonizing 20 minutes when the opera first
opened but have now been pared to five minutes, take place in front of the audience. The
technical challenges presented by the set have already pushed back the date of the first
New York preview from 26 November to 29 November (opening night remains 8 December). But
there's still a gasp when the largely grey and black set explodes with light and color for
the Café Momus scene, a riot of activity straight out of Moulin Rouge.
Three pairs of singers share the roles of Mimì and Rodolfo. None of them has hit 30, and
all are easy on the eyes (they've all been photographed for Vogue in advance of the
production). In a vain attempt to avoid any sense of numerical rank, the lead pairs have
been labeled "red," "white" and "blue," but it was the
"red" cast, featuring the tousle-haired American David Miller and Russian-born
Ekaterina Solovyeva, who sang at the first San Francisco press opening, with the
"white" cast of Alfred Boe and Wei Huang singing the next night and a press
invitation for the third cast, Jesus Garcia and Lisa Hopkins, delayed until Luhrmann
determined they were ready for their close-up. The production also features two Marcellos,
Eugene Brancoveanu and Ben Davis, and two Musettas, Jessica Comeau and Chloe Wright.
Even a mediocre Bohème will attract regular opera-lovers, but with Luhrmann's name
attached to it, this one is also attracting opera neophytes, some of whom didn't even
realize that the piece would be sung in Italian, according to a spokesperson for the
theater.
________________________________
Review: Baz Luhrmann
naturalizes 'Boheme'
As director, he emphasizes acting and movement as well as the singing -- with stunning
success.
By Marcus Crowder, Bee Theater Critic, SacTicket.com
17 October 2002
SAN FRANCISCO -- Baz Luhrmann really knows how
to put on a show. The Australian film director opened his enthralling, reimagined version
of Puccini's tragic romantic opera "La Boheme" Tuesday night at the Curran
Theatre and overwhelmed the celebrity-studded crowd. The audience rewarded Luhrmann and
his cast with a long standing ovation lasting well after the final curtain. The production
continues a brief run in San Francisco through Nov. 10, when it will head for Broadway.
Opera and Broadway don't usually mix, but Luhrmann is proving he's not just any director.
The uncluttered story of young lovers struggling at the fringes of society is readily
identifiable for a mainstream audience. If anyone can pull off the unlikely transition,
Luhrmann would seem to be that person. He has transposed Puccini's 1830s Paris setting to
a more recognizable though still bohemian 1957, and his cast of age-appropriate
20-somethings is an engaging departure from the stilted, voice-only considerations of
typical opera casting.
Presenting the work in this way, the director is both challenging and welcoming audiences.
Luhrmann's sensual and dynamic version of "La Boheme" is an example of how
so-called high art can be made accessible without condescending to its audience.
Luhrmann is best known in this country for his films "Strictly Ballroom,"
"William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" and the recent "Moulin Rouge."
Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge" star, Nicole Kidman, sat with the director on opening
night in an audience that also included actor Kevin Spacey and movie mogul George Lucas.
Luhrmann calls his films "The Red Curtain Trilogy" because of their accentuated
theatricality. With "La Boheme," he is working in a somewhat opposite direction,
trying to, in his words, "naturalize" the opera, emphasizing the singers' acting
and movements as well as their stirring voices.
For "La Boheme," Luhrmann retained a specific visual element from "Moulin
Rouge," as if he were putting his signature on the current production. The red sign
in flowing script -- "L'Amour" -- that appeared near the nightclub in the film
is now a significant part of "La Boheme's" rooftop set, which was designed by
Luhrmann's wife, Catherine Martin. Martin also co-designed the lush costumes with Angus
Strathie. Martin won an Oscar for her "Moulin Rouge" art direction and shared
another with Strathie for costume design.
The dark-hued set is a clever series of rolling platforms that fit together, forming a
contained playing space for the opera's more intimate scenes. The stagehands dressed as
extras openly come and go while making changes, and some actually remain during the
performance while creating the "effects" of flickering fire light or swirling
snow.
The platforms roll away, clearing the stage for the more populated outdoor crowd scenes,
which stuff the space with extras. In both configurations, the stage is exposed both to
the back wall and up to the rafters. The actual set changes, with the platforms spinning
around and revealing the next scene's playing space, were so ingeniously executed that
even they received appreciative applause from the audience.
The singers are young, beautiful and believable. Best of all, they have glorious voices.
David Miller, an American tenor who stars as the writer Rodolfo, sings with an unabashed
natural passion while displaying tremendous control and technique. He was matched by the
glorious voice of Russia's Ekaterina Solovyeva as the seamstress Mimi, who becomes his
lover. Their friends are Eugene Brancoveanu as the painter Marcello; Jessica Comeau as his
girlfriend, Musetta; Daniel Webb as Colline and Adam Grupper as Benoit. All are wonderful
singers and actors. They rotate with two other casts.
The dual talents of the performers give the production a unique vitality and humane
personality, while the creativity of Luhrmann and his behind-the-scenes collaborators
provide its artistic shimmer and confident panache.
Luhrmann's aesthetic is becoming recognizably clear. He's turning classic art back into
entertainment -- as it was originally -- and similarly giving entertainment more artistic
substance.
La Boheme - 4 stars
The Best of Broadway production continues at the Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San
Francisco, at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays
through Nov. 10. Tickets: $40-$90. Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes including
intermission. (415) 512-7770.
About the Writer: The Bee's Marcus Crowder can be reached at (916) 321-1120 or mcrowder@sacbee.com.
________________________________
Baz
Lurhmann's La Bohème
ABC 7 News, San Fransisco
15 October 2002 (press debut)
They call it "the greatest love story ever
sung." An opera classic in the guise of a Broadway show made its American premier in
San Francisco on its way to New York. Baz Lurhmann's La Bohème brings a fresh look to the
Puccini opera that just could leave you spellbound. ABC7's Arts and Entertainment Reporter
Don Sanchez has a peek.
It is visually stunning. Fifty people on stage, La Bohème is updated to 1957. Rebels
without a cause, from visionary Australian director Baz Luhrmann.
Baz Luhrmann, director: "We wanted to bring it back where it came from. a popular art
form that played for everyone."
He has stripped the theatrics from opera, making it more cinematic with images that may
look familiar. Much like he did with Moulin Rouge, his Oscar winning masterpiece.
"All of the chances are not arbitrary. They are about seeing the story. How do you
awaken the audience. Not what the Moulin Rouge was, but what it felt like to be
there."
Now La Bohème becomes his signature.
It took two years to find the international cast.
Three young leading couples alternate because the roles are so demanding.
"If you don't get how someone three times their age is suppose to be a young
bohemian, we've set out to make the production accessible as it was in 1894 when it was
first performed."
That was when it was considered racy, outrageous.
That is the Lurhmann touch.
From the exotic Simply Ballroom, to the rock beat of Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge.
Now with beautiful music, he delivers love and emotion on a canvas he has created on
stage.
"Is this risky? Hugely. ... To me the most important fund, if you will, is your
creative freedom account ... having said that, it's ridiculously risky. when was the last
time an Italian opera was hit on Broadway?"
Probably soon. Very soon.
La Bohème opens tonight and runs through November 10th at the Curran Theatre. Then it
heads to Broadway. Baz Lurhmann next begins filming an epic on the life of Alexander the
Great.
________________________________
Every
silver lining has a cloud
By Leah Garchik, San Fransisco Gate Newspaper
14 October 2002 (day before press debut)
It won't be just another opening, another show
Tuesday night when Baz Luhrmann's "La Bohème" makes the first of its official
press debuts at the Curran Theatre. To add to the considerable buzz around this lavish,
Broadway- bound adaptation of Puccini's most beloved opera, the scuttlebutt is that
Luhrmann has invited, oh, just a couple of his everyday, run-of-the-mill mates -- actors
Nicole Kidman and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Kidman starred in Luhrmann's mega-hit film musical, "Moulin Rouge," and shares
homeland roots with the glossy Aussie director, while DiCaprio had one of the star-crossed
title roles in his "Romeo + Juliet" and is about to take on the lead in
Luhrmann's "Alexander the Great."
Also on the guest list for the opening is film director George Lucas, who actually had
something to do with Luhrmann's choice of San Francisco as the petri dish for his
"Boheme." Several years ago, Luhrmann fell in love with the Bay Area while doing
post-production on "Romeo" at Lucas Ranch. Luhrmann and the "Boheme"
cast were back in Marin on Friday recording the opera's cast album at Lucas' digs.
Best of Broadway producers Carole Shorenstein Hays and Scott Nederlander will also be at
the Curran Tuesday night with their respective spouses, Jeffrey Hays and Dawn Nederlander.
It's not likely they'll be too nervous wondering how this particular show will do:
"Boheme" has been packing them in since its Oct. 1 opening, drawing an unusual
mix of traditional opera-goers and jeans-clad whippersnappers who may not know opera, but
know Luhrmann, and that's enough.
________________________________
The following article is not about La Bohème, but I thought it would be nice to include it anyway, as its about Baz's genorous appearance at a San Fransisco college!
'Moulin
Rouge' director wows students
By Alex Katz , Staff Writer, Tri Valley Herald
10 October 2002
OAKLAND -- Students at Mayor Jerry Brown's new
Oakland School for the Arts don't just study film, they get to chat with some of the
biggest names in the business.
At least that's what happened Wednesday morning when director Baz Luhrmann -- creator of
"Moulin Rouge," "Strictly Ballroom" and other popular, avant garde
movies -- stopped by to talk to students at the downtown campus.
Wearing a stylish suit with shirt untucked and a cell phone hanging around his neck, the
40-year-old Luhrmann spoke for more than an hour in the school's theater, answering
student questions about his inspirations, his productions and, of course, how much money
he makes.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars! I'm rich!" he joked, getting a big laugh.
"One day you'll grow up and have 10 assistants too," he told the art school's
first freshman class.
Students said they watched a few of Luhrmann's films before his talk, but said they didn't
get to see "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" because teachers said it was
too violent.
"He's a real inspiration to me because when he was young he went to a school just
like this," said freshman Beatrice Adkins. "He made it big, and that's what I'm
going to do."
Luhrmann, whose production of the opera "La Bohème" is playing in San
Francisco, told students he came from a tiny, extremely isolated town in Australia.
He said he was always interested in theater and storytelling, and attended a drama college
he described as similar to Oakland's new arts school.
In school, he created a 30-minute play that would later become his first major hit movie,
"Strictly Ballroom."
Every art form can be a form of storytelling, he told students.
"Everybody in this room is here because they want to be in the business of
storytelling," he said.
Luhrmann also told students they can learn the techniques and the processes of their
crafts in school, but they must look to themselves to find the inspiration needed to
create art. Go out and start creating, he said, instead of waiting for someone else to
tell you what to do.
Luhrmann also showed a short film about his large home/work space in Sydney, "The
House of Iona," where the music and choreography for "Moulin Rouge" was
done.
He said he came to the school after meeting the mayor at a dinner and hearing Brown talk
up his new charter school.
"What a brilliant idea," Luhrmann said of the school. "I just think it's
absolutely fundamental to give back. I said, 'Is there anything I can do?' and (Brown)
said, 'As a matter of fact ...' "
School officials said they expect more guest speakers, and acknowledged it doesn't hurt to
have a celebrity mayor working on their behalf.
"It makes a difference who visits the school, who is affiliated with the school and
who donates to the school," said admissions director Crystal Weston. "It helps
in ensuring the school is a success."
________________________________
'Bohème' rhapsody
By T. Hashimoto, The Examiner
7 October 2002
Baz Luhrmann is disheveled, 20 minutes late for our scheduled interview and surrounded by
eager, nattering press agents. But he's also so attractive and charming that one forgives
him the trappings of fame and the distractions of an impending opening night.
His highly-touted show, an untraditional production of Puccini's "La Bohème,"
opens in previews at the Curran Theatre that evening. (Tuesday night is the official
opening.) It plays San Francisco for six weeks before heading to a Dec. 1 Broadway
opening.
A lot of what you've heard about Luhrmann's undoubtedly risky theatrical venture seems
shaded to the tastes of non-musical writers, editors and their readers. For instance,
there's been too much righteous chest-thumping about restoring opera to the masses.
Luhrmann says repeatedly, "Opera was not originally an exclusive club." He's
wrong about that. The inventors of opera as we know it were aristocratic Florentines.
Mozart wrote most of his scores for nobles or the intelligentsia. And "La
Bohème" hardly has a good reputation in cultured circles. Benjamin Britten, for
instance, loathed it.
It wasn't until the mid-19th century that opera, following the democratic revolutions of
1848, became the TV-equivalent of entertainment for jockeys, dressmakers and the growing
bourgeoisie. That of course, is both the milieu and the era of Puccini's popular opera,
premiered in 1896, but based on Henri Murger's earlier "Scenes of Bohemia."
When you start talking to Luhrmann in these specific terms, you discover a guy who isn't
just a high-powered, showbiz brainiac, creator of several brilliant opera productions
(including a "Bohème" from Sydney Opera House that is available on Decca
video), plus three cult-favorite films, "Strictly Ballroom," "Romeo +
Juliet" and "Moulin Rouge."
He's also a scholar whose Bazmark company researches projects for years before it even
begins to produce or design them. He's got top tech people from English National Opera,
Sydney Opera House and Covent Garden on staff. And his Oscar-winning designer is his wife,
Catherine Martin.
The chief terror of opera for Americans has always been the language barrier. Baz proudly
reports that some kids, invited to pre-previews of "Bohème," told him they were
scared of hearing the work in Italian. The supertitles helped, but it was the music and
drama that made them cry. And they liked the Italian.
Luhrmann's own eyes glisten a bit when he tells me this story. And that's the clue to the
real Baz Luhrman. He's not just the insecure kid, the outsider who grew up living on
visionary dreams in an Australian desert town that consisted entirely of his dad's gas
station.
He's not just the hobnobber with Prince Charles, Placido Domingo and Joan Sutherland, all
of whose names he drops in the first few minutes of our talk. He's not even just the
impresario who models himself on Serge Diaghilev, but someone for whom music has vast
emotional power.
The real Baz Luhrmann seems to show up when he is talking about why he insisted on the
risky ploy of presenting "La Bohème" in its original language, though you can
imagine that the pressure on him to use a translation was immense.
Why did he insist on Italian? "Because the sound and shape of the Italian language is
at the very heart of its musical power. To do it in English is to disarm its musical
potency. I try to avoid being pretentious because there is so much pretension in opera
already, but it is not pretension to insist on the original language. It's common sense.
You're much better off taking the full leap."
And what about the reduced orchestration and "electronic enhancement" of
instruments and voices? "That was a result of our research. Italian opera houses, La
Scala for example, not only are smaller but they bear no acoustical resemblance to our big
opera houses, like the Met or San Francisco.
"Plus we live in a technological world now, so what we are trying to do is change the
acoustic of the building -- and the Curran is very like an Italian opera house -- so that
if you have a ticket in the cheap seats, it will play as at Scala. The sound will waft up.
It won't play like some tinny speaker off the corner of the stage.
"The other thing we've done with a reduced orchestration is to use the sampler only
for big string effects, in other words to duplicate what Puccini tried when he reduced the
score for touring, to get the biggest sound possible with a smaller amount of instruments.
But then we discovered that with fewer strings, the comic moments have a cafe-like
casualness.
"And this brings me to my final point, because when we were researching, we listened
to Toscanini's recording and discovered how much faster the tempo was in the theatrical
sequences, with the Bohemians rollicking around. Everybody has got so enamored of
beautiful sound today, that 'Bohème' performances are lush and slow.
"It's not the tempo of life, is it?" he continues. "Of course you have to
slow down in the emotional moments, but you have to earn that emotion. (Conductor)
Constantine (Kitsopoulos) is trying to get it back to something you might have experienced
when Toscanini was conducting."
And when "Bohème" is safely ensconsed on Broadway?
"I plan a nice long rest," Luhrmann says. "It's a dream of mine to
disappear into St. Petersburg. To do something about the city -- Russian culture,
Diaghilev, the Hermitage, the opera, the ballet. I mean, I studied the 19th century
Russians when I was a kid. It would be my reward for getting all this done."
________________________________
Baz's Broadway opera
By Maggie Shiels in San Fransisco for BBC News
7 October 2002
The Australian director of movie hit Moulin
Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, has never been afraid to tinker with the arts world's sacred cows.
He did it most successfully with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where he opened the bard's
work up to a more diverse crowd than schools ever could.
Now he is at it again, with the 40-year-old preparing to stage classic opera - Giacomo
Puccini's La Bohème - on Broadway where he feels it will reach its "true
audience".
By that he means supplanting the so called "opera buffs" who have turned the
medium into an elitist art form for an "exclusive club".
"Puccini made this work that it could be played for all kinds of people from all
kinds of backgrounds - that's everyone from the street sweeper to the King of Naples. That
was our mission," he explains in San Francisco, where the opera will run first.
"How do we make it clear to a younger audience who may be fearful of going into an
opera house with all of its strange conventions?
"You don't have to have a degree in music to understand an opera and get an emotional
connection to the story."
The story is as old as time. Two young people, Rodolfo, a writer and Mimi, a seamstress,
are mired in poverty. They meet and fall in love in a dank garret.
The backdrop includes young, bohemian artist friends who are bored with life.
Rebels
But instead of being set in the 1840s, the opera - which was first performed in 1896 -
will be given a 1950s backdrop.
"We found the social and economic realities of 1957 were a very good match for the
1840s," Luhrmann says.
"It was post-war, enormously bourgeois and stable and this notion of rebels without a
cause - young people who are non-politicised and who are just rebelling for the sake of it
- existed in the 1840s and as well as in 1957. It was a perfect social match."
Lurhmann's singers are amplified - something that is par for the course in musical theatre
but strictly taboo in the world of opera.
The director says he wants his audience to hear the opera the way Puccini meant it to be
heard.
"We're going to make the experience as much like the one you would have had in the
1840s," he explains.
"That means acoustically everybody in the house needs to hear it.
"In a small Italian opera house everybody in that space would have had quite a
visceral experience."
One nod to tradition comes in the fact the singing will be in Italian.
But the look will be different. Lurhmann, together with his creative partner and wife
Catherine Martin, is going for a very pared-down black and white approach.
It is a far cry from the work Martin did for Moulin Rouge for which she won an Oscar.
Monochrome style
For La Bohème, Martin was inspired by the photographers of the 1950s.
"This idea of black and white photos, by Doisneau or Henri Cartier Bresson or even
earlier photographers was the creative starting point," she says.
"The interesting thing is that people to some degree expect something different from
us and that possibly breaks down some barriers."
It is not the first time the duo have tackled one of opera's most renowned works.
They staged their more modern version in Sydney in 1990 for the Australian Opera when
Luhrmann was just 28. Critics hated it but leading soprano Joan Sutherland praised the
show.
Now Luhrmann feels La Bohème marks the final chapter in his "red curtain work"
which included Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge and Strictly Ballroom.
"The decision of what to make has never come from a point of 'gee, let's go break a
taboo' - it comes simply from what I need to do with my life, what will make my life a
rich and interesting journey," he says.
"Man cannot live for opening nights alone."
La Bohème opens at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco, on 15 October and plays until 10
November.
The New York performance is at the Broadway Theatre - previews start on 26 November, and
the opening night is 8 December.
________________________________
Conductor
Constantine Kitsopoulos to Utilize Digital Music Stand In San Francisco Preview of Baz
Luhrmann's "La Bohème"
PR Newswire
3 October 2002
SAN FRANCISCO -- Music Director Constantine Kitsopoulos will utilize the e-Stand
Performer(TM) Digital Music Workstation (Conductor(TM) model) when he conducts the
pre-Broadway engagement of Baz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's "La Bohème"
at San Francisco's Curran Theatre from October 1st through November 10th. The show is
slated to open on Broadway on December 8th. This marks the first time that the e-Stand
will be used in a Broadway production; and it will feature Pucccini's entire conductor's
score, digitally displayed and imported from Finale(TM) -- a music authoring and
composition software program.
"The e-Stand is a ground-breaking appliance that will revolutionize the way musicians
interact with their music. The interactive element will save time and money especially
where the e-Stand is used in conjunction with the creation of new musical works. I don't
miss the paper," raves Maestro Kitsopoulos.
The e-Stand Performer was unveiled by world-famous violinist Itzhak Perlman conducting the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival this past June. The e-Stand Performer
is a patented stand-alone and networkable sheet music management and collaboration system
that redefines how musicians interact with their music. It is a "hands-free" and
"noise-free" technology that allows musicians to focus completely on playing and
interpreting music rather than on turning pages of sheet music, since there is no mouse,
no keyboard, and no paper. Instead, the e-Stand features hands-free page-turning by foot
switch or touch screen page-turning and instant navigation to jump to different sections
of the score.
According to developer David Sitrick, "the e-Stand is an appliance, which is a touch
screen networkable music display workstation. When it is turned on, it powers up as an
electronic music stand."
Mr. Sitrick, a guitarist, began the development of the e-Stand over a decade ago as a
result of being frustrated with the limitations of sheet music over the course of 30
years. e-Stand was created to completely redefine how musicians obtain, view and work with
music, making it dramatically easier and more efficient for students and performers to
learn new music and perform without hindrances.
Miriam Perkoff, Director of Strategic Marketing for e-Stand, Inc., is known in the San
Francisco Bay area as an active performing cellist and for co-founding the innovative
ensembles New Century Chamber Orchestra and Stratos, a chamber orchestra which integrated
a distinctive combination of classical and contemporary music, sound design, lighting, set
design, dance and the spoken word, fusing all of these elements to create a powerful,
multi-layered, theatrical experience.
The Technology Behind e-Stand
The User Interface is "Musician Intuitive". For those wanting tech-talk, here's
how the e-Stand Performer works: The processor retrieves and processes stored music data,
and displays it as a digital image on a touch screen LCD screen (or two LCD screens).
Music files in multiple compatible formats (e.g. PDF, JIFF, JPEG) can be input from any
medium, including flash RAM, CD-ROM, hard disk drives or downloaded from the Internet,
etc. and then loaded into the e-Stand Digital Music Workstation. Printed sheet music can
be scanned, digitized and stored as music files for use in the e-Stand. The musician or
conductor performs music -- without having to stop to turn pages -- as the e-Stand allows
the musician to turn the page, forward or backward, at his or her own pace via a foot
pedal, or alternatively, by tapping a button below or on the screen.
Collaborative networking is a major e-Stand feature. Network connectivity is synchronized
between multiple units, instantly sharing information and score changes from one e-Stand
to other specified e-Stands. The musician can write remarks or edit on the touch screen by
hand or with a stylus or mark the score with information to be distributed to select
performers or the entire orchestra - providing significant time and money savings in the
process, and improving the quality of the performance and quality of life of the
performers.
For instance, approximately 20-40% of an orchestra's rehearsal time is wasted making
manual modifications to sheet music, as each member of the orchestra must manually edit
his or her sheet music as changes are reported from section to section within the
orchestra. The average orchestra rehearsal lasts approximately 150 minutes, with $13,000
spent on musician salaries alone. Ultimately, the quality of the final musical product is
improved as more time is spent on music-making, rather than music-editing. The e-Stand can
save and deliver all remarks to the orchestra librarian's computer for archiving, refining
and final editing to the score. The orchestra's librarian can use the e-Stand
Librarian(TM) system to store and manage the orchestra's music.
The e-Stand Performer(TM) Digital Music Workstation music is displayed on a flat-screen
monitor that is about the size of a traditional music stand. Unlike sheet-music software
that requires the musician to click a mouse or use a metronome, e-Stand advances the music
automatically, or in the musician's own real time, or in the time of an entire orchestra.
The e-Stand Performer models will be sold at prices competitive with comparable laptop
computers. Student, Consumer and Professional models will be offered at varying prices.
Custom models -- such as for touring bands and ensembles - will be offered on demand.
e-Stand currently has a supplier with an international presence and is in talks with
several established manufacturers of consumer electronic and computer equipment. Each has
multiple manufacturing and support locations both domestically and internationally.
What Experts Say About the e-Stand
Itzhak Perlman - "The e-Stand will do for sheet music what the typewriter, word
processor and desktop publishing did for the ink pen and paper. In one fell swoop,
e-Stand's technology will bring the music industry into the 21st century."
John Williams - Academy Award-winning composer and conductor writes: "I
wholeheartedly endorse e-Stand, Inc. and the efforts of Itzhak Perlman and you (David
Sitrick) to bring the e-Stand technology to the music world. It will benefit all involved
in numerous ways - from students to professionals, from orchestras to recording and movie
studios."
Stan Applebaum - World-renowned composer/arranger/conductor says: "I sincerely
believe the e-Stand is the beginning of the end of the paper parade, and it will establish
itself as a necessary tool for those who study and perform music."
About "La Bohème"
Fearlessly mixing traditional opera with modern theatrical production styles, acclaimed
director Baz Luhrmann is bringing Puccini's beloved "La Bohème" to a new
generation of music lovers. Originally set in 1830's Paris, "La Bohème" tells
the story of doomed lovers Mimi and Rodolfo. Luhrmann's production is updated to 1957, and
will use Puccini's score intact, in the original Italian.
Source: e-Stand, Inc.
________________________________
Opera
for the masses
Filmmakers' 'La Bohème' bound for S.F., Broadway
By Christopher Hawthorne, The Chronicle Sunday
29 September 2002
(Two images were featured with this article and can be found on the Miscellaneous Images page.)
New York -- On a bright, late-summer day in Manhattan, in a roomy rehearsal space four
floors above the corner of Broadway and 19th Street, Baz Luhrmann is taking a group of
young opera singers through their paces. Luhrmann's highly anticipated production of
Puccini's 1896 opera "La Bohème" is just a few weeks away from its opening
night across the country in San Francisco. But the director, best known for last year's
high-flying film "Moulin Rouge," is struggling to lift this particular session
above the basics.
"Did I mention it's freezing in here?" Luhrmann asks. While the unheated
Parisian garret apartment Puccini's bohemians occupy onstage is supposed to be as cold as
a meat locker, August is still sweltering away outside.
Dressed casually in an untucked button-down shirt over jeans and black sneakers, his
floppy hair an attractive mixture of blond, gray and dark streaks, Luhrmann backs away and
crouches down to assess the scene. A tiny notebook, in which he scribbles occasional notes
to himself, dangles from his neck. "Freezing!" he reminds the performers.
"So, so cold!"
The constant weather bulletins are a bit surprising. If there's anyone you'd expect to be
able to conjure up a Parisian winter in New York two weeks before Labor Day without any
strain, it's Luhrmann. His work, after all, doesn't just blur the lines between theater
and film and between high and low culture. It occupies a universe where the normal rules
-- gravitational, dramatic, or meteorological -- simply don't seem to apply.
Love or despise them, his most recent films, "Moulin Rouge" and 1996's
"Romeo + Juliet," were two of the most resolutely contemporary cinematic
experiments in recent Hollywood memory. Somehow, Luhrmann and his wife, Catherine Martin
-- who designs all his productions and won Academy Awards for the costumes and sets of
"Moulin Rouge" -- have made anachronism not just profitable but sexy.
Their new project relies on the same process: polishing a dusty classic with so much manic
elbow grease that it doesn't just shine but gives off a highly marketable bling-bling
sheen. In this case, the source material is a production Luhrmann first directed at the
Sydney Opera House in 1990, when he was 28.
Now, having turned 40 this month, Luhrmann is getting ready to stage a revamped version of
that opera. It keeps the action in Paris but moves it forward to 1957; the staging takes
its visual cues from the famous black-and- white photographs of the city by Brassai and
Doisneau. After a six-week tryout in San Francisco, the show is set to open Dec. 8 in New
York.
Since the throats of opera singers are not equipped to handle the demands of a Broadway
schedule, this Boheme will feature three pairs of singers playing the lead parts of the
poet Rodolfo and his frail lover, Mimi. Luhrmann has insisted on working with all three
couples himself, which means long hours in rehearsal. "I do feel lucky on some
evenings still to be standing," he says with a theatrical sigh.
Though the production will be sung in Italian, Luhrmann is making a few key concessions to
youth-obsessed U.S. culture. All six Mimis and Rodolfos are in their 20s, and none has a
head shot that looks half bad.
Luhrmann and "Boheme's" music director, Constantine Kitsopoulos, also decided to
electronically amplify the singers and a 26-piece orchestra, which is about a third of
normal size for an opera and will be playing a new reduction of the Puccini score. That
amplification -- some of which is produced by having keyboards play a simulated version of
secondary orchestral parts -- is bound to be received with cautious interest, if not
hostility, by opera traditionalists. "What we're doing is making sure that the people
in the cheap seats can hear as clearly as the people in 15th row center," says
Kitsopoulos, whose resume includes work for the New York City Opera and Hong Kong Opera as
well as Broadway musicals.
Back in the sunny rehearsal room, sonic amplification is just about the last thing on the
minds of Luhrmann's young performers, who were selected after an "American
Idol"-style casting process that included more than 3,000 singers. This session has
so far included no music at all.
Instead, Luhrmann begins each scene by asking the singers to move through it without
speaking, using only expression and eye movement to make themselves understood. Then they
act out the scene in spoken -- and often heavily improvised -- English, followed by spoken
Italian. Only later will Luhrmann nod to the rehearsal pianist and ask the performers to
sing.
For all the attention, the production may feel stripped down to fans of Luhrmann and
Martin's whirling, overstuffed film work.
"What we're doing now is really the antithesis of what we were trying to do with
'Moulin Rouge,' which was to theatricalize film -- to heighten the sense that you were
watching something staged," Luhrmann said. "With 'Boheme' we want to
de-theatricalize the production because, if anything, opera these days is overdone and
tired in its level of theatricality. We want to make it accessible, clear."
"La Bohème" is a natural choice for the kind of populist treatment Martin and
Luhrmann aim to give it. Its music and story line are direct and economical. Its
characters are love-crazy young creative types, not corpulent monarchs or Wagnerian
giants. Kitsopoulos suggests that this "La Bohème" will continue a process of
demystification that began in the opera world about two decades ago.
"In the 1980s, when supertitles began to be widely used, this velvet curtain was
lifted," he says. "It became OK all of a sudden for audiences to expect that
when that went to an opera they could not only enjoy the music but,
shockingly enough, actually understand what was going on. But a lot of us feel that opera
needs to go further in that direction. And that's what this production is about."
"La Bohème'
Baz Luhrmann's staging of the Puccini opera opens Tuesday and plays through Nov. 10 at the
Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets: $40-$90. Call (415) 512-7770 or go
to www.bestofbroadway-sf.com.
________________________________
Vision shoots
opera into neon realms (no link)
Frenetic Director Puts Soul and Instincts into Melding of Art Forms,
Eras and Attitudes
By Karen D'Souza, The Mercury Newspaper, San Fransisco
27 September 2002
"L'Amour.'' A sign on the set of Baz
Luhrmann's ``La Bohème'' seduces the viewer with the French word for love, scrawled in
cherry-red neon.
Actually, you may recognize this bit of eye candy from Luhrmann's blockbuster film
"Moulin Rouge,'' where it sat perched high atop a ramshackle boarding house. Its
reappearance here is far from coincidence.
It's a little visual emblem that links the two works as messengers from the director's
frenetically inventive brain. One might be a masterpiece of 19th-century Italian opera,
the other a cinematic kitsch extravaganza starring Nicole Kidman, but both are part of
what Luhrmann is describing as his Red Curtain period, when genres bend and theatricality
becomes an extreme sport.
So it should come as no surprise that Puccini gets a bit post-modern with this "La
Bohème,'' which goes into previews at San Francisco's Curran Theatre this week before
moving straight to Broadway in December. It will be the first classic opera ever staged
there.
"My mission is to bring the show to its true audience, which is everybody,'' Luhrmann
says with more than a hint of cheek. "That's why we want to take this to Broadway.
"Art is fundamental. Access to classical art is a necessity. Who we are, what we are,
what we are about is passed down in any tribe by the songs and stories that transcend time
and geography.''
One thing is certain: This will be a staging from a man hell-bent on breaking rules in the
name of art. The original work takes place in 1840s Paris, where seamstress Mimi and
writer Rodolfo fall in love in a dank garret. Luhrmann is transporting the tragic romance
into 1957 and has peopled it with a multicultural cast of actor/singers in their 20s (the
youth factor alone is enough to make opera purists gasp).
A master at stirring up buzz, the director commanded the attention of all present when he
held court at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco some time back to discuss his vision for
the $6.5 million production, in which opera and pop culture converge. Or, as he sees it,
reconverge.
"It's like this,'' he said. "I come not to bury the opera house. But when this
opera was written, it wasn't even the film of its day, it was the television. It was
popular entertainment. It had to play for the child and the adult, for the street sweeper
and the King of Naples.''
Now the audience for opera has "become an elite club, to which I belong. I too can
nod off in the second act of Wagner and still wake up and applaud madly at the end. But if
you're not a club member, there are some very bizarre elements.''
Knee twitching, hands waving, the impresario of stage and screen talks like he thinks --
in a frenetic rush of images and ideas that mimics the jump cuts that rip through his
movies. In many ways, he lives up to his own description of Puccini -- "a pretty
unusual cat.'' He's a stylish free spirit not above a little name-dropping (be it that of
the Prince of Wales or Plácido Domingo). If some of his remarks sound slightly scripted,
there is no denying the keenness of his intellect, and the charismatic force of his
personality.
Directs own interview
In an instant, he has set the tone of the interview, guiding the photographer on how to
frame him, whipping through classical allusions like a scholar while somehow maintaining
an urban hipster pose (a look heightened by his tousled silver-blond hair).
All the while you can see the gears shifting in his head, setting up the next shot in the
blockbuster that is his life. He often refers to himself in the third person and, at 39,
he seems to live in a state of perpetual fast-forward -- working constantly, sleeping
little, often talking in shorthand. Abbreviated shorthand, even: When he refers to
Catherine Martin, his wife and creative partner, as C.M., it almost comes out as
"Sam.''
As he puts it: "People do talk about Baz, and they say, 'Oh, he's non-stop.' But that
non-stopness comes from the way I grew up.''
Indeed, many facets of his character were shaped by his early years in Herron's Creek, a
hamlet outside of Sydney, Australia, where he first learned the pleasures of an eclectic
ear as a boy working in his father's gas station.
"My father came back from the Vietnam War with this reel-to-reel tape and we played
it incessantly, over and over and over again, so that it became the soundtrack to our
upbringing. And it was the Tijuana Brass, the Beatles and 'Pagliacci,' which explains a
few things. It left me with a total lack of prejudice about music. It's all just music.''
When he wasn't manning his station, he was being put through his paces: studying Greek,
horseback riding, ballroom dancing (a passion he revisited in his film "Strictly
Ballroom'' in 1992). He took his Renaissance man training for granted and never felt that
the high art was the province of the elite, that classical musical had to come wrapped in
rarified rituals. So his first night at the opera was something of a shock as he realized
the opera had become a "holy temple'' to the voice at the expense of all else.
"I was deeply, deeply disappointed by the experience,'' he recalls. "It was just
sort of pointless. I would rather have been sitting at home, drinking red wine and
listening to the music.''
He came away determined to reinvent the genre, to banish the snob factor and embrace the
masses. Then one day in 1990, the Australian Opera invited him to try his luck at ``La
Bohème.''
"They said `Deal with the work as if it were being done for the first time. Bring a
new audience in.''' Luhrmann booked a hot young cast and applied hyperkinetic stagecraft,
and ``the minute we announced it, the entire subscription audience canceled! There were
more letters to the local paper about how terrible our `La Bohème' was than about the
Gulf War. It was that huge.''
All those upturned noses soon got their comeuppance, though. No less an icon than diva
Joan Sutherland praised the show. The next generation came in droves.
In 1996, with his film ``Romeo+Juliet,'' a Shakespearean romp for the MTV set starring
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, Luhrmann again bridged the gap between mythic and
modern.
"Look, nothing I have ever made has been based on the idea that it was a good career
move,'' he says. "Think about it. No one said 'Hey! Funky Shakespeare, what a great
idea! Let's add another wing to the studio.' It was a risk.
"It's all a risk. I shake and fear just as much as any other creative person. Every
day you wake up to a deafening chorus of 'That will never work! You're doomed!'''
But flying in the face of convention is what impresses Roxanne Messina Captor, the
executive director of the San Francisco Film Society. "I'm a big fan of his work,''
she says. ``He's innovative and he takes risks and he pushes the envelope. He takes
something that could be staid and makes it interesting for a modern audience. If people
really, really love it or really, really hate it, then you know you've done something. You
want that kind of passion out of your audience.''
Not to mention your cast. Jesus Garcia, one of the twenty-something tenors who rotates in
the role of Rodolfo, describes the director in almost messianic terms.
"Baz is like a prophet,'' says Garcia. "This is going to up the ante for the
whole opera world. Right now, my generation as a whole isn't interested in the opera. It's
become a museum. Baz is paving the way for a renaissance in the art form. Of course, some
people are going to be threatened by that.''
Amplification
Which raises another touchy subject: vocal amplification, which is par for the course in
musical theater but taboo in the world of opera.
"Opera was written to be played in really small Italian opera houses,'' says
Luhrmann. "That's a really beautiful, delicate acoustic. Most of what we call opera
houses are not in any way the same and we want to make sure that the kids in the back in
the cheap seats get the same experience.''
He bristles at the suggestion that making something accessible means dumbing it down. Yes,
he may have stacked the cast with under-30 hotties, but that does not mean Mimi will be
busting out with Madonna's "Like a Virgin'' (which popped up prominently in
"Moulin Rouge'' even though that movie was set in belle époque Paris).
"The headline should be: this is `La Bohème' sung in Italian. I don't want that
hidden,'' Luhrmann says. "We are going to make this accessible through the dramatic
interpretation, not by changing the language or the music.''
Still, as far as Garcia can tell, Luhrmann's approach to the project is nothing if not
radical.
"There is nothing that Baz does in rehearsal that is anything like the average opera
director,'' says Garcia. "He's on a constant search for the truth. He had us say our
lines in English so that we would really know what we were singing, and that would never
happen in a normal opera company.''
Martin suspects the key to her husband's success lies in his leadership style, which she
says changes little whether he's working in a tiny black-box theater Down Under or on a
multimillion-dollar Tinseltown set.
"He knows how to push people to do more and do it better than they possibly would if
left to their own devices,'' says Martin, who won Oscars for her ``Moulin Rouge'' costumes
and sets. "Whoever you are within the fabric of the process, you know you are valued,
and that makes you contribute more.''
On the other hand, Luhrmann rarely hands over the reins to anyone. He retains the final
say on all aspects of a project, from shooting the TV commercials to designing the
tickets.
"I control all aspects of our art on every level,'' he admits. "When you spend
your life doing your work, which I do, then it's not a job. It's your life.''
As it happens, one of the reasons he came back to ``La Bohème'' was entirely personal. As
his birthday approaches, he has been musing about the crossroads between youth and middle
age, innocence and experience, past and future.
Goodbye to all that
"I turn 40 in San Francisco, so that's why I'm doing `La Bohème' again,'' he
explains. "It's a sort of a bookend for that era. I am coming full circle. I am so
different in so many ways now. This production will have more focus on the beautiful
melancholy of acknowledging that that youthful Bohemia is gone. It's time to get on with
the adult life.''
So why has no one ever done opera on Broadway before?
"Well, it's pretty risky proposition, isn't it?,'' he says. "I am in a unique
position because I can afford to finance myself. I've got a name and I've got a brand, but
let's face it. It's still Italian opera in the commercial theater. It's a desperately,
desperately risky thing to do.''
Does he ever feel pressured by his success? Was it easier to take chances in anonymity?
Now that the expectations are so high, does he feel more of the tension between art and
commerce, aesthetics and the bottom line?
"No. I do what I do. It could be a smash. It could be career suicide. Maybe this time
is the time I bit off more than I can chew,'' he says with a glint in his eye that makes
it obvious that he would have it no other way.
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, directed by Baz Luhrmann
Where: the Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco
When: previews begin Tuesday; opening night is Oct 15
Through: Nov. 10
Tickets: $40-$90; (415) 512-7770 or www.bestofbroadway-sf.com
________________________________
Theatrical
treatment moves `Bohème' toward Broadway (no link)
By Mike Guersch, The Mercury Newspaper, San Fransisco
27 September 2002
The new Broadway version of "La Bohème'' will feature more bells and whistles -- and
fewer strings and woodwinds -- than the usual opera company production.
That aside, the Baz Luhrmann "Bohème'' that hits the Curran Theatre in San Francisco
this week is being advertised as the original opera masterpiece placed inside a musical
theater venue.
"It's not a way-out production of 'Bohème,' '' says musical director Constantine
Kitsopoulos. ``We're being as faithful to Puccini as we know how to be. We want to be
truthful to the story and also do everything we can to make opera a great experience and
accessible to anyone.''
Giacomo Puccini's best work has been doing that in regular opera houses for decades. Only
"Carmen'' has served as a better introduction to opera for young people and other
beginners. ``La Bohème,'' the story of six young people who struggle with the ups and
downs of love and life, has struck chords with audiences since its premiere in 1896. Its
tender, tragic ending is one of opera's great Kleenex moments.
So after discussing several options -- including whether or not to sing it in English --
Luhrmann and crew decided to find three casts of young, good-looking opera singers who can
sing the original Italian version and act it, too.
The real sound, though, will be different from the usual opera experience. There will be
some use of microphones, perhaps also in the orchestra pit. Officially this is being
called "sound enhancement,'' but a microphone is a microphone. Also, the orchestra is
26 pieces, less than half of what normally is used in a major opera company production.
"This is routine for a small opera,'' Kitsopoulos says. "My feeling about
reductions is, you don't get less of a sense of the original sonorities.''
Still, purists will wonder about using two keyboards to play secondary woodwind and brass
parts using electronic samples.
It probably won't faze the target audience -- newcomers to opera. "We hope people
will leave with the spark of opera inside them,'' says tenor Alfred Boe.
Because of their theatricality, Puccini operas long have influenced musical theater. The
Broadway musical ``Rent'' is based on ``Bohème.'' Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Miss
Saigon'' is derived from Puccini's "Madama Butterfly.'' Linda Ronstadt sang the role
of Mimi in a pop-theater production of "Bohème.'' Even Luhrmann's idea has been
tried before in San Francisco. In 1996, San Francisco Opera used four casts and a typical
Broadway schedule for a 24-day run of "La Bohème'' at the Orpheum.
"It's immediately accessible to even the most casual listener,'' says F. Paul
Driscoll, executive editor of Opera News magazine. Still, he adds, "as a piece of
musical theater on Broadway, I'm not sure how the audience is going to be reacting to
something sung in Italian.''
Setting the story in 1957 instead of the usual 1830 might help, as will the usual
supertitles -- though Kitsopoulos hints that the supertitles display might be
untraditional.
In one of his most famous quotes, Puccini said "God touched me with His little finger
and said, ``Write for the theater, only for the theater.''
Who knows? He probably had a place like the Curran in mind.
________________________________
Baz's Bohème -
Can the director of Moulin Rouge succeed in the opera?
By Lisa Hom , The San Fransisco Weekly
25 September 2002
If opera is on its last legs, as we hear all the time, then filmmaker Baz Luhrmann is just
the man to give it a boost. The Australian Wunderkind is an old pro at making stuffy art
forms palatable to the general public. After his first film, 1992's Strictly Ballroom -- a
high-energy romp about a Sydney dance contest -- became a runaway hit, he transferred the
Bard's star-crossed lovers to SoCal for 1996's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Last
year he breathed life into the tired movie musical with Moulin Rouge. Now Luhrmann turns
his attention to an even more challenging directive: bringing opera back to the masses. In
one of the most-hyped theater events in recent memory, he revamps Puccini's 1896 classic
La Bohème and previews it in San Francisco during a six-week engagement, before it makes
its premiere in December as the first opera ever on Broadway.
Luhrmann is no stranger to the tale of the indigent poet Rodolfo and his consumptive lover
Mimi. He first staged the bohemian rhapsody more than 10 years ago at the Sydney Opera
House, an act that resulted in many old-timers canceling their subscriptions. Moulin
Rouge, which grossed $175 million worldwide and received several Academy Award
nominations, was itself a take on La Bohème.
But local operagoers need not get their glasses in a fog. Though Luhrmann has demonstrated
his prowess at pushing the envelope, this show is no bastardization of Puccini's
much-loved masterwork. Sung in Italian with surtitles, the original score remains
untouched. Of course, there will be changes. Luhrmann's wife and creative partner,
Catherine Martin, is in charge of updating the costumes and sets from 1830s Paris to the
postwar city of 1957. Performances are to be miked (common practice in the theater world,
but a no-no in the opera house), and the traditional 80-plus orchestra has been downsized
by more than half. And don't bother waiting around for the fat lady to sing: In Baz's
world, Mimi and Rodolfo are played alternately by three sets of slender singers, all
approximately the same age as their twentysomething characters.
Puccini's tragedy is the perfect vehicle for Luhrmann. At least according to the American
producers of the Broadway hit Rent -- another adaptation of La Bohème -- who had been
courting Luhrmann to bring his rendition stateside. Some critics have said that this
venture is career suicide, and Luhrmann certainly faces a tough challenge in pleasing
various contingents: Theatergoers may find his adaptation too stylized, and opera buffs
may find it too artless. It'll also be interesting to see whether he can draw fans of his
films without giving them his trademark hyper editing, manic camera angles, and eclectic
soundtracks. But as Puccini enthusiasts know, l'amour conquers all, and for Luhrmann this
is a labor of love.
La Bohème
Details: Opens Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m. and runs through Nov. 10
Admission is $40-90 , 551-2000, www.bestofbroadway-sf.com
Where: The Curran Theatre, 445 Geary (between Taylor and Mason), S.F.
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