La bohème

“La bohème may very well be the ultimate opera,” says soprano Ann-Helen Moen, who is ready to bring life to the role of Mimì on the Main Stage.

In La bohème, we encounter youthful dreams, burning love, painful grief, everyday life, celebration, tragedy and comedy – all set to Puccini’s intensely beautiful music. With simple, minimalist scenery, the opera is performed by a group of brilliant Norwegian soloists together with the Norwegian National Opera Chorus, Norwegian National Opera Children’s Chorus and Norwegian National Opera Orchestra. 

Only a few seats remain for this scenic concert, so if you want to experience live opera again before the summer, act fast!   

A story about life

In a loft in Paris, we are introduced to a group of young artists. In the freezing cold, they warm themselves with dreams and wine. When someone knocks on the door, it is love at first sight for the poet Rodolfo. Mimì is as beautiful as the spring sun, but her cold hands are a sign that something is wrong. Mimì is ill and the life-affirming group must face the reality of life: beautiful and fleeting. 

Music for eternity

La bohème first premiered in 1896 and has since become one of the most often performed operas. 

“Men die and governments change, but the songs of La bohème will live forever.” These are the words of Thomas Edison, written to his friend, composer Giacomo Puccini. In La bohème, he shows how music lives and breathes within us: in the long lines of ‘O soave fanciulla’, when Mimì and Rodolfo fall in love and essentially hold on to time, in Musetta’s elegant and casually sauntering ‘Quando me'n vo'’ and in the deafening silence when breathing stops and death occurs.