La tragédie de la vie de Bohème

It is with refreshing ease and openness that gorgeous Takesha Meshé Kizart speaks about her operatic craft and the characters she portrays. In Opera Australia's gritty new Gale Edwards production of La Bohème, the young American soprano's Mimi is a beacon of loveliness and simplicity amidst the raunchy Berlin spiegeltent where the glittering nightlife contrasts the bohemians' desperate reality. The subject of Rodolfo's enduring passion is, however, more than just another of opera's tragic heroines. Puccini places Mimi within the context of the reality, broadening the character's dimensions as she is swept up in the struggle to survive, much the same as the opera's other feminine triumph the gloriously shameless Musetta, played in this production by Taryn Fiebig. By maintaining her distinctive presence on the stage Kizart portrays Mimi's real strength and endurance despite the part's characteristic wallflower innocence. 

All the characters in this production are well done and Korean tenor Ja Min Park is convincing in his portrayal of the tragically devoted Rodolfo. The male cast does, however, pale against Fiebig's demanding Musetta and Kizart's lovely and tragic Mimi. In the end Musetta shows how very similar the seemingly contrasting female leads are in displaying her capacity for goodness in pawning her jewellery to fulfil what she perceives to be Mimi's dying wish to warm her hands. La Bohème is unyieldingly tragic to the end, touching us via small human tools such as Musetta's kindness and Rudolfo's lasting hope that the doctor will finally come and save his Mimi. 

This production is clearly targeted at a twenty-something audience. At two hours, plus a single interval, the opera moves the company away from the epic three hour dual interval Fledermaus-esque marathon, but the timing surely strips the genre to its necessary truths. Though not a modernised adaptation at all, set at a time and place in which the unnoticed death of an impoverished woman on the street is certainly believable, this glamourous 1920s interpretation is about as sexed up as Opera Australia can get and will go a long way in appealing to its future audience. If Opera Australia is aiming to develop its younger audience-base through such productions, this opera is an obvious choice, particularly with its relationship with the enduring 90s musical RENT, which twenty-something consumers are just old enough to have experienced first hand. 


The opera itself is young, appealing, sexy, tragic and ruthless. The production is true to the concepts of the original and most importantly to the epic score of the master of late 19th century opera. The set is honest, vibrant and full of life at times, contrasting the bleak, freezing garret of the desperate bohemians with the non-reality of the Berlin night life where characters survive only at great cost to themselves. 


Gale Edwards offers the honest, heart wrenching, gripping, passion and wit that is possible within the full breadth of the opera experience. If the twenty-somethings can get hold of an affordable ticket without forgoing food and rent, Edward's La Bohème is the kind of youthful production that will show a new generation of audiences that the opera experience is not just for our parents and grand parents to own, but can be for us as well.

Opera Australia's La Bohème opens on the 12th of April and runs to the 13th of May at the Art Centre's State Theatre. 

For ticketing and more info see the Opera Australia website at www.opera-australia.org.au.

For a You Tube clip of Takesha Meshé Kizart talking about her role click here