Dallas Opera's LA BOHEME Opens 3/13

The Dallas Opera is preparing to whisk audiences away to the Latin Quarter of Paris for the blockbuster opera of the season: Giacomo Puccini's 1896 masterpiece, LA BOHÈME, based on Henri Murger's newspaper serial-turned-novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème.

The Dallas Opera's enormously popular period production of LA BOHÈME opens on Friday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Subsequent performances will be presented in this limited run on March 15(m), 18, 21, 27 at 7:30 p.m., & 29(m), 2015.

The performance on Saturday, March 21st will also be simulcast live from the Winspear to an audience of thousands at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. Your best chance (short of joining the NFL) to be seen on the mega-screens at the home of the Dallas Cowboys!

The Winspear Opera House is centrally located in the Dallas Arts District at 2403 Flora Street, Dallas, TX 75201 and tickets start at just $19.

This Dallas Opera production stars charismatic American tenor Bryan Hymel as Rodolfo and Grammy Award-winning Latin American soprano Ana María Martínez as Mimì, at the head of an international all-star ensemble.

An opera "cover girl" who recently graced the covers of Opera News and Opera magazines, Ana María Martínez is one of the most in-demand sopranos of our time. With a voice described as lustrous and vibrant, she has sung beside the legendary Plácido Domingo and with famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel, in concert. According to Opera News, Ms. Martínez has shown herself to be "a radiantly vulnerable Mimì, consistently employing her darkly textured lyric soprano with great sensitivity to dynamics and text." She returns to The Dallas Opera stage following her star turn in our 2008 production of Die Fledermaus.

The engaging Bryan Hymel is one of today's fastest-rising opera stars. His 2014-2015 Season commenced at New York's Metropolitan Opera, where he earned rave reviews in this same role. The New York Observer praised Mr. Hymel's top notes, "as brilliant as fireworks," as well as his generous and romantic musical phrasing. He returns to The Dallas Opera after his thrilling 2011 debut as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. Since that time, he has developed into an audience favorite at London's Royal Opera and made successful debuts in Chicago and San Francisco, along with other leading opera companies around the world.

Sultry soprano Davinia Rodriguez, born in Spain's Canary Islands and now living in Italy, makes her Dallas Opera debut in this production as the tantalizing yet irrepressible Musetta. She recently performed with Plácido Domingo at Theater an der Wien (Vienna) in I due Foscari for which Bachtrack claimed, "it is a memorable instrument and she gave a striking performance of a very difficult role." She will be paired with young baritone Jonathan Beyer (Captain Gardiner in the Dallas Opera's 2010 world premiere production of Moby-Dick) as the equally mercurial Marcello. According to The Washington Post: "Beyer has the luxury of a robust, handsome voice, and promising years ahead."

The international ensemble cast includes Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov, who is a regular guest at major opera houses including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera National de Paris and Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. He will sing the role of the philosophical Colline. Dallas native Steven LaBrie recently portrayed the musician Schaunard at Washington National Opera eliciting this rave review. "Depicting Schaunard as a matinée idol with uninhibited high spirits, baritone Steven LaBrie was as light on his feet as Errol Flynn and more handsome than the young Cary Grant ," according to Voix Des Arts. Bass Stefan Szkafarowsky, a native of New York City, who sang in The Dallas Opera's triumphant 2011 production of Boris Godunov and several recent appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, will return for the dual roles of Benoit the bohemian's landlord and a secondary role as Musetta's occasional "sugar daddy," Alcindoro.

This classic Dallas Opera production was lovingly designed by the late, great Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, with costumes by The Dallas Opera's longtime resident costume designer, the incomparable Peter J. Hall.

LA BOHÈME will be conducted by Italian Maestro Riccardo Frizza in his eagerly anticipated company debut. Maestro Frizza is described by Seen and Heard as "totally convincing, conducting his forces with both strength and gentleness, always supporting the singers and getting fine results from the orchestra."

In the role of stage director, TDO will welcome back acclaimed singer-turned-director Peter Kazaras to guide the enormous cast in this ever-popular favorite.

Lighting design is by Thomas C. Hase and chorus preparation by Dallas Opera Chorus Master Alexander Rom. The children's chorus will be prepared by Melinda Cotten.

"Although recent media interest has centered on an unprecedented string of Dallas Opera world premieres in 2015, the company is just as careful in its selection-and enthusiastic in its presentation-of the most enduring works in the opera canon," explains Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny. "Popular favorites like La bohème will always hold a special place in our hearts because they present familiar characters and an appealing and moving story, as well as universal truths about life, love, and mortality; what is fleeting and, ultimately, what lasts.

"I am very excited to see what this splendid ensemble has in store for us, under the keen direction of Riccardo Frizza in his first podium appearance at TDO, and the watchful eye of stage director Peter Kazaras in his company directorial debut," Cerny adds. "We expect plenty of sparkle, but even more sparks!"

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