(photo by Michael Cooper)
Young Love
by Shannon Christy
Remember those days when you would walk in the rain just to see a glimpse of someone you loved. The days before you became cynical and still thought that you could make a difference. That your ideals could change the world and that your efforts would have a lasting impact. Well regardless of whether you remember those days fondly or not, La Bohème is the opera for you. It is even better if you can have those memories accompanied by some outstanding vocal performances and this production of La Bohème does just that.
La Bohème is about six young people struggling to find their way in Paris. The four men are honing their crafts as a painter, a poet, a philosopher, and a musician and they are flat broke. The two women are a seamstress and a grisette and they seem better off as they have discovered the material advantages their bodies can provide. However, the women are dissatisfied with the notion of trading material goods for men with hands as cold as ice and they attempt to have the best of both worlds by falling in love with two of the young men while accepting the material gifts of their older patrons. There is a lightness about the opera, with the exception that one character suffers from a terminal illness, and even though tempers flair, insults are hurled, and anger boils over it seems light and ephemeral just like the loves of one’s youth.
