EarRelevant Staff | 13 SEP 2024
This month, The Atlanta Opera brings a unique double bill to life at the industrial Pullman Yards: Giacomo Puccini’s timeless La bohème and Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical Rent. While separated by 100 years, both works share striking parallels in their storylines, characters, and emotional arcs. The productions explore the lives of struggling artists against a backdrop of poverty and illness, connecting 19th-century Paris with 1990s New York City in profound and moving ways.
La bohème centers on a group of young, bohemian artists living in the Latin Quarter of Paris, grappling with love, loss, and survival. Tuberculosis looms over them (COVID-19 in this contemporary production), a symbol of the fragility of life. In Rent, composer-librettist Larson transposes these same themes to the East Village during the height of the AIDS crisis. The characters are modern-day counterparts: poets become songwriters, seamstresses become dancers, and tuberculosis becomes HIV. But the heart of each story—the pursuit of love and art in the face of poverty and illness—remains.
Tomer Zvulun, The Atlanta Opera’s general and artistic director, emphasizes the resonance of these productions in today’s world. “Both La bohème and Rent are universal stories about artists, pandemics, and how bad things impact not only society but particularly artists,” he said. “What struck me about these works is how relentless they are; the music never stops, the action is propulsive. We wanted to find a way to visually and theatrically echo that momentum in a space that makes the audience feel like they’re part of the action.”
Indeed, both pieces are celebrated for their “through-composed” nature, meaning the music drives the narrative without interruption, creating a continuous emotional experience for the audience. This unbroken flow, whether through Puccini’s lush orchestration or Larson’s rock-influenced score, mirrors the characters’ relentless struggle with the unstoppable forces of love, illness, and time.
Zvulun’s and co-director/designer Vita Tzykun’s vision for this production is an immersive experience. At Pullman Yards, the audience will be surrounded by the action, blurring the lines between spectator and participant. “You can almost touch the sweat of the singers,” said Zvulun. “It’s all about breaking down those barriers between the performers and the audience, making the experience immediate and visceral, just like the emotions these characters are going through.”
In La Bohème, the audience will be transported to the streets of Paris, where young artists burn pages of their own works to stay warm. In Rent, they will find themselves amidst the chaos of New York City’s East Village, where Larson’s characters are living on the edge, fighting not only against HIV but against the erasure of their community by gentrification.
These productions also pay tribute to those who have helped communities endure pandemics throughout history. Zvulun points out that tuberculosis, AIDS, and now COVID-19 have all disproportionately affected marginalized artists, but they also provide stories of resilience. “We are going full circle,” said Zvulun, referring to the collaboration between the opera company and health partners during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing with gratitude top health professionals such as John M. Haupert, President and CEO of Grady Health System, and Dr. Carlos del Rio, a distinguished professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, epidemiologist, and co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research. This partnership, a nod to Rent’s emphasis on community, highlights the ongoing struggle against illness in today’s society, especially in Atlanta, which Zvulun noted is often called the “capital of HIV in America.”
The Atlanta Opera’s Tomer Zvulun in front of a Pullman Yards building. (courtesy of The Atlanta Opera)
For Zvulun and his team, this pairing of La Bohème and Rent, which have never before been produced together by a professional opera company, is not just about entertainment—it’s a powerful reminder of the cyclical nature of history and art’s role in reflecting the human condition. As Zvulun put it, “History has a funny way of rhyming.”
The Atlanta Opera’s La nohème and Rent productions will run in a “festival format” on alternating dates from September 18 through October 6, offering audiences a chance to experience these works in a fresh, immersive setting that underscores their enduring relevance.
For more information and tickets, visit atlantaopera.org ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- The Atlanta Opera: atlantaopera.org
Read more by Mark Gresham.
RECENT POSTS
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, the Atlanta Symphony delivers poetic Mahler and powerful Shostakovich • 03 Oct 2024
Breaking barriers: flutist Adam Sadberry honors civil rights legacy, brings his powerful music to Spivey Hall • 02 Oct 2024
.png){kind=logo}