We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Friday December 29 2017 Conductor: Manuel López-Gómez. Production: Claus Guth. Sets: Étienne Pluss. Costumes: Eva Dessecker. Lighting: Fabrice Kebour. Video: Arian Andiel. Choreography: Teresa Rotemberg. Mimì: Nicole Car. Musetta: Elena Tsallagova. Rodolfo: Benjamin Bernheim. Marcello: Artur Ruciński. Schaunard: Andrei Jilihovschi. Colline: Roberto Tagliavini. Alcindoro: Marc Labonnette. Parpignol: Antonel Boldan. Sergente dei doganari: Florent Mbia. Un doganiere: Jian-Hong Zhao. Un venditore ambulante: Fernando Velasquez. Orchestra and Choruss of the Opéra National de Paris. Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine, Choeur d’enfants de l’Opéra national de Paris. Solaris Prompted by an exchange with internet chronicler Rowna Sutin, I took a look back over my 2017 schedule this weekend and decided it had been a good year. Highlights were discovering Snegurochka (and Aida Garifullina) in Tcherniakov's production; Bieito's very sound Carmen with Anita Rachvelishvili in...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 19 2010 Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Production: Andreas Homoki. Sets (what sets?): Hartmut Meyer. Costumes: Mechthild Seipel. Mimi: Ermonela Jaho. Musetta: Anne-Catherine Gillet. Rodolfo: Giuseppe Filianoti. Marcello: Massimo Cavalletti. Schaunard: Lauri Vasar. Colline: Giovanni Battista Parodi. Parpignol: Marc Coulon. Benoît: Jacques Does. Not being a fan of La Bohème , I’d never given the plot and characters much thought. Being paid to do it, however, Andreas Homoki has. His production, now in Brussels, raises a couple of interesting points that had never struck me before. First, “Bohemians” were really what are now called "bobos." We can assume that, as young painters, poets, musicians and philosophers, they were children of the bourgeoisie; and there’s little doubt that they aspired to material success, even if they set out to épater their class. Second, that being so, there’s every likelihood that, once success was upon them, they would...