The final video of the year to be streamed by San Francisco Opera (SFO) through its Opera is ON service will be one of the few operas that explicitly involves the celebration of Christmas. The work is Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, a four-act opera whose first two acts take place on Christmas Eve. Christmas never really signifies explicitly in the plot, but the connotations of a chorus of children clamoring for the toys sold by Parpignol amount to at least a veiled reference to the Christmas spirit of those wealthy enough to indulge family and friends.
Taken as a whole, however, the libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa is more about a Bohemian lifestyle of those that barely have the resources to make ends meet (if they have any resources at all). In that context the second act amounts to a “fantasy-scherzo,” which contrasts sharply with the darker sides of the other three acts. True, the protagonists laugh about their poverty in the first act; but, with one brief exception, there is nothing to laugh about during the final act.
Michael Fabiano and Alexia Voulgaridou in La bohème (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)
The video to be streamed was recorded at the end of the 2014 Fall Season. The staging was by John Caird, who was making his SFO debut. Two of the principal characters were also making SFO debuts, soprano Alexia Voulgaridou in the role of Mimì and baritone Alexey Markov as Marcello. The other major roles were taken by tenor Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo and soprano Nadine Sierra as Musetta. The conductor was Giuseppe Finzi.
As with the previous offerings, this video will become available at no charge on Saturday, December 12, at 10 a.m. Free access will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, December 13. The video will then be added to the archive available to subscribers and those that have donated $75 or more.
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