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Hear Puccini’s 'La bohème' in concert form, with a stellar cast

Left to right: Bass-baritone Christian van Horn, baritone Alexey Lavrov, soprano Leah Hawkins, bass-baritone Adam Plachetka, soprano Nicole Car, and tenor Stephen Costello perform La bohéme at Marian Anderson Hall on June 6, 2024.
Jessica Griffin / Philadelphia O
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Left to right: Bass-baritone Christian van Horn, baritone Alexey Lavrov, soprano Leah Hawkins, bass-baritone Adam Plachetka, soprano Nicole Car, and tenor Stephen Costello perform La bohéme at Marian Anderson Hall on June 6, 2024.

Join us on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you a complete concert performance of Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, the quintessential opera of youthful romance among impoverished artists.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra are joined by sopranos Nicole Car and Leah Hawkins, tenor Stephen Costello, baritone Alexey Lavrov, and bass-baritones Adam Plachetka and Christian van Horn; as well as the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, Philadelphia Girls Choir, and Philadelphia Boys Choir.

Yannick notes that everyone can find something to identify with in this deeply relatable story. “This is an opera about a story that can still happen, and it’s so actual,” he says. “It's really resonating, I think, for a lot of people at the start of their lives and their first loves. And Puccini is just a master at getting all those emotions exactly right.”

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin on bringing the orchestra out of the pit and onto the stage for La bohème

The action of La bohème takes place in the Latin Quarter of Paris during the 1830s, among struggling young artists and performers known to their contemporaries as “Bohemians.” Puccini drew his story from a popular series of newspaper sketches by Henri Murger, a French writer who had lived among such artists in his youth. Puccini’s fun-loving young people enjoy themselves thoroughly in the first two acts. The poet Rodolfo and the seamstress Mimì meet and fall in love. The painter Marcello and his former lover, the courtesan Musetta, reunite after a separation. With their friends — Schaunard, a musician, and Colline, a philosopher — they join a boisterous crowd in celebrating Christmas Eve. But things turn dark in the third and fourth acts, as poverty and illness take their toll on the lovers, and the opera ultimately ends with the tragic death of Mimì.

La bohème, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall on June 6, 2024.
Jessica Griffin / Philadelphia O
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La bohème, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall on June 6, 2024.

Yannick, who is the music director of The Metropolitan Opera as well as The Philadelphia Orchestra, has performed La bohème at The Met with several of the singers featured in this concert performance, and is excited to offer the work with the Philadelphians on stage and the singers on a platform above and behind the orchestra. “It forces me to organize my way of conducting Puccini’s style in a different way, which I love,” he says. “Operas in concert are so much fun to do here in Philly, because people get to enjoy and see the instruments playing and enjoy the score, even more vividly than in the theater. And also we have to express the theatrical aspect really solely by our singing and our playing.”

PROGRAM (Original concert dates: June 7 and 9, 2024)

Giacomo Puccini: La bohème

The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Symphonic Choir

The Philadelphia Boys Choir

The Philadelphia Girls Choir

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

CAST:

Nicole Car, soprano (Mimì)

Stephen Costello, tenor (Rodolfo)

Leah Hawkins, soprano (Musetta)

Adam Plachetka, bass-baritone (Marcello)

Christian Van Horn, bass-baritone (Colline)

Alexey Lavrov, baritone (Schaunard)

Donald Maxwell, baritone (Benoit/Alcindoro)

Bryan Umberto Hoyos, tenor (toy vendor)

Mark Hightower, bass (custom house officer)

John T.K. Scherch, bass (soldier)

William Lim, Jr., tenor (prune seller)

Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, streaming at WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your smart speaker. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast on WRTI Replay.

Melinda has worked in radio for decades, hosting and producing classical music and arts news. An award-winning broadcaster, she has created and hosted classical music programs and reported for NPR, WQXR—New York, WHYY–Philadelphia, and American Public Media. WRTI listeners may remember her years hosting classical music for WFLN and WHYY.