Who doesn’t adore La Bohème? With its tragic lovers, touching arias, and potent emotional insight, this lyric masterpiece seems inexhaustible, as Straz Center’s Opera Tampa returns to its classic roots. Audiences bond with the struggling bohemians because to be carefree and young is romantic, and when illness intrudes on the plan, everybody ends up singing. That’s what opera is about, and it doesn’t get much better than in Puccini’s most resilient work.
Opera Tampa will take you back to Paris in 1830, where penniless, cold, and starving characters thrive on tunes that come from the heart. Each time Rodolfo and Mimi embrace − and the cast ponders the transience of life and art, it’s sentimental and endearing, and to get through Si, mi chiamano Mimi, you’ll need a handkerchief. Better bring two.
You can see La Bohème at the Straz Center's Ferguson Hall on April 11 & 13. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit StrazCenter.org.
