SUNDAY, April 17th 2:00 p.m.
La Boheme: the heartbreaking story of opera's most famous young lovers
It's Christmas in Paris as the quintessential bohemian love story comes to life: a candle flickers out on Christmas Eve, tentative hands meet in the dark, and a rapturous duet soars under the moonlight… this is Puccini’s La Boheme. The opera is a collection of vignettes portraying six young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s.
Inspired by Henri Murger's novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème, La Boheme inspired the award-winning Broadway musical Rent.
Guided by an L.A. Opera Community Educator, at Crowell Library you will follow this heartbreaking story of a poet who discovers true love with a beautiful, fragile seamstress, and a painter and vivacious cabaret singer who rediscover their on-again, off-again passion. Surrounded by the evocative rooftops, cafés and garrets of Paris, these lively bohemians and their companions experience exhilarating joy and irretrievable loss.
Opera is not just magnificent music, dance and theater with astounding sets on a beautiful stage. An opera can sweep you away to foreign lands, take you back in time, dazzle you with pageantry and bring history to life. It is literature, social studies, cultural diversity, multiple languages and most of all, it is exciting! Opera has something for everyone.
This introduction to opera at Crowell Public Library is free. After hearing excerpts from this production, you’ll undoubtedly be inspired to make a trip to the Los Angeles Music Center for a real opera experience. Come explore the world of opera through LA Opera’s education programs.
