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La Bohème

Giacomo Puccini

14 – 23 Dec 2025

La Bohème orle Spleen de Paris

Living on love and art in a ice-cold attic, mocking poverty and turning light-heartedness into a weapon against adversity: such is the madcap challenge taken up by the characters in Scenes from the Life of Bohemians (1851), Henry Murger's short novel which later inspired Puccini's opera (1895). By showing ‘bohemians’ dreaming and failing in their lives, Puccini and his librettists subvert the success story that Murger had imagined. La Bohème is a bleak and disillusioned Christmas tale that exalts a sublime tragedy, so operatic (and inevitably tearful) that it strikes the audience deep in the heart. David Geselson's production places Bohème in the context of the revolutionary movements of the 19th century, with Delacroix as a political and pictorial reference. Mimì and Musetta are the emblematic figures of this social freedom that seeks to triumph in death and love respectively. In doing so, he reveals through these two women a poignant form of commitment: that of loving and living life to the full, even when the outcome is known in advance and everything seems to be conspiring against the possibility of future happiness.

‘They call me Mimì,
But my real name is Lucia.
My story is a short one...’

A film and a book to delve deeper into the subject:

 

  • La Vie de bohème (Aki Kaurismäki, 1992): A modern and stylised film adaptation of Murger's original story (to be discovered at Cinema Cameo Commanderie, more information here).
  • Le Spleen de Paris (Charles Baudelaire): Prose poems blending beauty and misery, fleeting desires and vague sorrows. Love is often impossible or wounded. A poetic mirror to the world of Mimì and Rodolfo. (Poésie Gallimard)

Calendar

  • Sun . 14 December 2025
    15:00
    Opéra national de Lorraine
  • Wed . 17 December 2025
    20:00
    Opéra national de Lorraine
  • Fri . 19 December 2025
    20:00
    Opéra national de Lorraine
  • Sun . 21 December 2025
    15:00
    Opéra national de Lorraine
  • Tue . 23 December 2025
    20:00
    Opéra national de Lorraine

Information

Duration
2 h 30 with interval

Prices
5 - 85 €

Show in Italian, surtitles
From 7 years

  • Introduction to the performance: 1 hour before the start of the performance (free of charge, upon presentation of ticket).

Cast

La Bohème, opera in four acts

First performed on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin

Libretto

Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica

Music

Giacomo Puccini


 New production

Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine

Co-production

théâtre de Caen, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Opéra de Dijon, Opéra de Reims


Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine Orchestra
Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine and Opéra de Dijon choruses
Children's chorus of the Conservatoire régional du Grand Nancy
Conductor

Marta Gardolińska

Assistant conductor

Renaud Madore

Chorus master

Anass Ismat


Stage director

David Geselson

Set design 

Lisa Navarro

Costumes

Benjamin Moreau

Lighting

Jérémie Papin

Video

Jérémie Scheidler

Assistant stage director

Sophie Bricaire


Mimì

Lucie Peyramaure

Rodolfo

Angel Romero

Musetta

Lilian Farahani

Marcello

Yoann Dubruque

Colline

Blaise Malaba

Schaunard

Louis de Lavignère

Benoît, Alcindoro*
Parpignol*
Customs Officers Sergeant*

*  Soloists from the Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine and Opéra de Dijon choruses

 

Gallery

See also

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