4 - 6/10/2002 20:00
Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium
380
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Shanghai Opera House Chorus
Choirmaster: Zhang Jie Min
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia
Music director: Carlo Donadio
Stage Director: Maurizio di Mattia
Production from Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania, Italy
| Cast: | |
| Mimì | Ines Salazar/ Robin Follman (5/10 only) |
| Rodolfo | Raúl Melo/ Warren Mok (5/10 only) |
| Marcello | Marcin Bronikowski |
| Colline | Brian Jauhiainen |
| Schaunard | Guy Bonfiglio |
| Musetta | Donata Lombardi |
| Benoît/Alcindoro | Michael Rippon |
| Parpignol | Chi Li Ming |
La Bohème
| 
Raúl Melo | 
Warren Mok |
"La Bohème," set in the Parisian Left Bank in the early 19th century, centres around the lives of four young bohemians - a poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher – who share a ramshackle, chilly studio. Poet Rodolfo meets neighbour Mimì, a young seamstress who comes in looking for a light for her candle. It is love at first light.
Mimì, however, suffers from tuberculosis, the health scourge of the 19th century. After a romantic fling in a Parisian cafe, they separate because of Rodolof’s unwarranted jealousy. They reunite when she is terminally ill and struggles to their studio room. In a subplot, painter Marcello is reunited with a former lover, the saucily flamboyant Musetta.
La Bohème is one of the best-loved operas of all time. Certainly Giacomo Puccini's masterpiece is a perfectly measured cocktail - equal parts tender love story, uproarious comedy, thrilling spectacle and heartbreaking drama. The sweeping melodies and brilliant score are balanced by a stunning setting, the Bohemian world of 1840’s Paris.
Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania
The legendary Massimo Bellini Theatre, one of the most renowned stages in Italian musical history, opened in 1890 with Norma, written by the Catania-born composer after whom the theatre was named. It has retained its traditions over the years and now, as ever, is an important cultural landmark. Over recent decades, it has attracted public and critical attention thanks to a number of successful festivals in honour of Bellini, and to the high quality of the theatre’s performances. The most famous lyric artists like Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, la divina Maria Callas, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballé have sung at the Belinni Theatre.
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia
The orchestra was founded in 1986 and since then it has given more than five hundred concerts and opera performances in Italy and abroad. It is the fruit of artistic co-operation with professional musicians from all around the world, such as famous cellist Mtislav Rostropovitch singers José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, and renowned conductors Salvatore Accardo, Marcello Viotti and Ignacio Yepes. It has recorded 44 CDs and is a recipient of the European Prize for Culture.
The Orchestra toured France with Mtislav Rostropovitch and is now touring China for the 3rd time in the commemoration of the 4th centenary of the arrival in the Forbidden City in Beijing of Jesuit missionary, astronomer, philosopher and musician Father Matteo Ricci. The Orchestra appeared in the XV MIMF in La Traviata.
| 
Maurizio di Mattia | 
Carlo Donadio | 
Ines Salazar | 
Robin Follman |
Sung in Italian with English, Chinese and Portuguese subtitles
Running time: approx....inc. two intervals