La boheme

La Boheme

(6-28-08)

OH MY GOD!!!

What can I say about this Opera? What can I say about the Berlin Opera Company? Fantastic, Phenmoenal, Amazing, Stupendous, breath-taking, Wonderful! I am so completely impressed by the Berliner Opera. I cannot even really express in words how wonderful it is. Tonight, the Opera was at 7:30pm. Although we tried to plan ahead, the u-bahn (underground) took forever to get to the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

We got there 5 mins to show time. We raced up to the second balcony, and took our seat in the eighth row, which is the second row from the top. A woman came on stage, and informed us, that the actor who played the main male lead, Rodolfo, was feeling very sick and would only do the acting on stage, but that they had called all over Europe basically, and finally a man in Rome had agreed to fly out today, from Rome to sing the part. His name is Allessandro Liberatore! He was amazing. He stood off to the side of the stage in a tuxedo, with a spot light on him and sang all of the parts, he was even emoting while doing it, while the man who normally sings the role acted out the part on stage.

The cast was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot say this enough. I was so blown away by the professionalism and everthing having to do with this cast.

The Opera: La Boheme this will be a quick run down for those of you who have no clue what La Boheme is.

Act I: The show opens with basically 4 men on Christmas eve? or day? unsure... Among these men is an artist and a writer (I believe them to be the two male leads, even though Rodolfo (the writer) is pretty much aknowledged as the main male lead). The 4 are a merry troup with one another and they make light of one another with relative comfortablitly. 3 of the men go out on the town and Rodolfo stays in the Apartment to write.

Along comes Mimi (The main female lead), she has lost her key and her candle has gone out looking for it. She asks him to light it for her, and when she leaves, she realizes what she was looking for and her candle goes about again, then his candle goes out and the two are in the "dark" apartment alone together. they search for the key, because I think they are trying to hide their feelings from one another, and then the two basically fall in love. Just like that, not very practical or believeable, but none-the-less, it happens.

Act II: Mimi and Rodolfo go to join his friends in town. (This set and the ensemble simply blew my mind, they had acrobats, fire eaters and players, etc. It was amazing. A troup of about 20 children, and a chorus of about 60-80. The sets changed every act, and each one was... WOW!) The join his friends and along comes Mussetta, who is Marcelo's (one of the 4) "girlfriend", however, she is kind of a lose cannon, she likes to have expensive things, so she dates men who have the money to fulfill her desires. She is quite...self-indulgent. She basically tortures this poor rich man for half of the act and in the end, she and Marcelo are back in each others arms.

Act III: Mimi comes to where Marcelo lives to tell him how Rodolfo has broken things off with her. Marcelo is a bit shocked by this, and eventually Rodolfo shows up to tell Marcelo its off with Mimi, and he says thigsn about how its over, Marcelo prys a bit and evenutally Rodolfo confesses how much he loves Mimi (mimi is in the background listening to all of this, and basically realizes that she is slowly dying from Consumption (Tuberculosis). The two decided to stay together until the first blooms of spring and then they will end it. And marcelo and Mussetta have a roll and the two spilt.

Act IV: Marcelo and Rodolfo are trying desperately to work (Artist and Writer) however all they can think about are the women they love. They can only see their faces when they try to work. The two other men come in declare new positions,etc. A play fight ensues and they are all merry, until Mussetta comes in telling everyone that she found Mimi on the stairs and she can go no further, she is dying. Mimi comes in and says how she will go if Rodolfo does not want her there, but the truth is that the two are madly in love with one another. Mimi becomes colder and colder and her last wish is to have a hand muff to warm her hands in.

Marcelo and Mussetta run off to buy her a muff and to get her a doctor. While they are gone the otehr two leave and they are left alone. The confess how much they love one another, etc. Mussetta and Marcelo come back, Mussetta gives the muff to Mimi and shortly there after, she passes away. No one realizes it at first, because they all have hope with a doctor on the way, but when they finally realize she is gone, the curtain closes. It is a very emotional show, you go from laughter, to emense an emense high, to sadness, to extremely sad. I basically bawled. It was so wonderful. I cried through the third and fourth acts and I will say how wonderful these players did. This Opera has one of my favorite tenor arias. The Rodolfo Aria in Act I. Opera singers, I am sure you know which one I am referring to.

After the show, the curtain call went on forever and rightly so. I felt as though I was clapping for christmas at luther. I felt like they were really milking it. The came out in pairs, then all, then one by one, then all again, then pairs again, etc. It was a riot. We took the subway home, by this time it was raining again. We only had to walk a small chunk in the rain from Friedrickstrasse to our hostel. This opera performance was worth every penny we paid for it. It is tragic, but it is wonderful. I might even say that it is my favorite. Even though I do dearly love Il Barberie di Sivigla ( I think that is how it is spelled, correct me if I am wrong). Tonight was wonderful, in full!

After we got back, Matthew and I finished off our last pudding cup, ate some chips and peanut flips, had some apfelschorel, and went downstairs to have a beer with our friend Tyler, who did not come to the Opera with us. Wonderful, I am still reeling from it. I wish you all a very pleasant night, and I will write again tomorrow with our news.

We plan to spend the day at the zoo, but that could all change depending on the weather! Biss Dann