The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA-The Gesa Power House Live Cinema Series continues with an April 1 screening of The Royal Opera's current production of La bohème at 6 p.m. 

La bohème explores the love affair between the penniless poet Rodolfo and the seamstress Mimì, contrasting it with a more lighthearted affair between the painter Marcello and the singer Musetta. Mimì is gravely ill with tuberculosis and she and Rodolfo decide to separate so that Mimì can find a wealthier lover to provide her with the care she needs. They are reunited in Mimì's final hours when she returns to the only man she ever loved.

Courtesy photo

Director Richard Jones' wonderful production of La bohème, revived by Julia Burbach, captures both the opera's humor and its tragedy, while Stewart Laing's eye-catching designs bring 19th-century Paris to life, particularly in Act II with its dazzling shopping arcades and café. The score is one of Puccini's finest, with highlights including Rodolfo and Mimì's Act I arias and love duet, Act II's Christmas choruses and the heartbreaking final scene in which Mimì and Rodolfo are reunited.  

The fantastic cast of this production includes American tenor Charles Castronovo (Rodolfo) and Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva (Mimì), along with Polish baritone Andrzej Filończyk as Marcello, Russian soprano Aida Garifullina in her Royal Opera debut as Musetta, Hungarian baritone. French conductor Emmanuel Villaume conducts.

Filmed during a live event, the Live Cinema Series broadcasts offer audiences an equivalent to the best seat in the house, and is sponsored in part by Shakespeare Walla Walla.

Reserved seating tickets ($15 Adults, $10 Students) are available online at www.phtww.com or by calling the box office at (509) 529-6500.