Daniel Oren conducts Puccini's masterpiece
The new staging is by Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi

Teatro Regio, Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 8 pm

On Wednesday, March 11, at 8 pm, one of the most beloved operas returns to Teatro Regio: Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. The Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Regio will be conducted by maestro Daniel Oren, who already directed the "centenary" version in 1996. Regio's Chorus is under the guidance of Andrea Secchi, and the Youth Chorus of Teatro Regio and the "G. Verdi” Conservatory is under the guidance of Claudio Fenoglio. This new staging, directed by Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi, with scenery by Leila Fteita and costumes by Nicoletta Ceccolini, faithfully reproduces the famous sketches that Adolf Hohenstein made for the world premiere at Teatro Regio in 1896, which are now kept in the Ricordi Historical Archive. The lighting is by Andrea Anfossi. 

During the ten performances, from March 11 to March 22, the main roles will be alternated by Dinara Alieva and Maria Teresa Leva (Mimì), Jonathan Tetelman and Valentin Dytiuk (Rodolfo), Hasmik Torosyan and Paola Antonucci (Musetta), Massimo Cavalletti and Italo Proferisce (Marcello), Riccardo Fassi and Alessio Cacciamani (Colline), and Costantino Finucci and Tommaso Barea (Schaunard). Matteo Peirone will play both Benoît and Alcindoro.

This production of La bohème has been made possible thanks to the support from Italgas, a Founding Partner of Teatro Regio. The Company stated «we are pleased that our collaboration with a symbol of the city of Turin, such as Teatro Regio, has continued to grow steadily and that allows us this year to promote an opera that has its roots in the history of the nation. Exactly like Italgas. La bohème is a masterpiece appreciated all over the world, and we are pleased to be able to make a contribution so that the people of Turin may continue to enjoy it, just as they did the first production of it at Teatro Regio in 1896». 

Taking the podium to conduct the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Regio with his great expertise will be Daniel Oren, one of the greatest interpreters of Italian melodrama, and Puccini in particular, who in fact continues with his conduction of Puccini operas at Teatro Regio, after Madama Butterfly (2018/19 season) and Tosca.

Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi stated: «La bohème is the opera of our youth. It is an opera that describes the experience of all of us in a sincere and direct way; a story that moves us, overwhelms us, and intimately tells us who we are. The life of the protagonists is the life of all of us: loves, difficulties, life plans, artistic ambitions, dreams, adversities, work, the desire for freedom, disappointments, illness, and death. Everything is described in simple words, yet always true and profound. La bohème is a perfect and timeless opera. Mimi's death is memorable, poignant, and devastatingly dramatic, it transforms all of us into Rodolfo. We are overwhelmed by his enthusiasm and we deeply feel the responsibility that has been given to us. We rely on Puccini's genius to guide us in this splendid and exciting adventure».

Dinara Alieva, who is making her debut at Teatro Regio, is the winner of numerous international competitions: Operalia, promoted by Placido Domingo, the Francisco Viñas Competition, the Maria Callas competition in Athens, and the Elena Obraztsova Competition in Saint Petersburg. She has already played the role of Mimì on first-rate stages such as at the Deutsche Oper and the Bolshoi Theater. Jonathan Tetelman, already highly appreciated in the role of Cavaradossi in Tosca at the beginning of the season, is considered a rising star of opera worldwide. The winner of the Lyric Opera Competition in New York in 2017, he has performed in theaters such as the Komische Oper in Berlin, Liceu in Barcelona, and Semperoper in Dresden. Hasmik Torosyan also returns to Teatro Regio for the second time this Season after her great success in the role of Leïla in Pescatori di perle by Bizet; in her vast repertoire, the Armenian soprano has garnered huge acclaim as Musetta at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, at the San Carlo Opera House in Naples, and at Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Massimo Cavalletti trained under the guidance of Luciana Serra and Leo Nucci. He has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House in London, the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Zurich Opera, and at the Salzburg Festival. Regio's audiences have already heard him in the role of Count di Luna in Il trovatore at the opening of the 2018-2019 Season.

«La bohème does not leave a great impression on the souls of the listeners, it will not leave a great trace in the history of our lyric opera tradition». Thus wrote Carlo Bersezio in the La Stampa newspaper the day after February 1, 1896, when the opera that would mark the career of its author and the history of music forever, La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, was staged for the first time at Teatro Regio in Turin, with a 29-year-old Arturo Toscanini conducting the Orchestra. Despite the diffidence of the music critics of the time, it was the audience that decreed the beginning of a success that still shows no sign of diminishing, and the title of which appears regularly in the top five of the most represented operas in the world.

The ingredients that have made it so beloved, in addition to Puccini's musical genius, are the vividness of its Bohemian protagonists, artists and students in Paris in 1830, and their "gay and terrible life" as described by Henri Murger in his famous novel. This is also the case in the scenes depicted by Puccini's pen and in the verses by Giacosa and Illica, in which the harshness of poverty and disease are intertwined with the freshness and irony of youth; a carefree age to which Mimi's death marks a poignant farewell. After more than a century, it is not just the music and libretto, but also the famous poster, the Art Nouveau scenery, and sketches created by the poster designer and scenographer Adolf Hohenstein for its premiere in 1896, currently kept in the Ricordi Historical Archive, which have entered the collective imagination of audience members around the world. The new production designed by Gavazzeni and Maranghi that will be staged at Teatro Regio is entirely inspired by the original one which sprang from Hohenstein's pencil; this is an unmissable opportunity to relive La bohème as Puccini saw it.

For The Conferences at Teatro Regio series, on Tuesday, March 3 at 5:30 pm, Susanna Franchi will preside over the presentation entitled From Murger to Regio: postcards from Paris, with the participation of the directors Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi. 

Tickets are on sale at the Teatro Regio Ticket Office, piazza Castello 215 - Tel. 011.8815.241/242, at Infopiemonte-Torinocultura, in the Vivaticket sales points, and online on our website without commission costs and on www.vivaticket.it, and by telephone at no. 011.8815.270. Ticket prices: for the performance on March 11 are  €160 - 125 - 105 - 80 - 55; for performances on March 12, 19 and 21, € 90 - 80 - 70 - 65 - 30; for performances on March 13, 15, 18 and 22,  €100 - 90 - 80 - 70 - 30 and for the performances on March  14 and 17, €60 - 55 - 50 - 45 - 30. Tickets are reduced by 20% for those under 30 and 10% for those over 65. With the 18app, it is possible to purchase tickets (in any sector) at a cost of €25 for the premiere on March 11. An hour before the shows, any tickets still available are on sale with a 20% reduction on the full price. The reductions are not valid for the performances on March 14 and 17. For further information: Tel. 011.8815.557 and www.teatroregio.torino.it.

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