The Atlanta Opera Opens 2024–25 Season With Immersive BOHÈME PROJECT

The Atlanta Opera will open the 2024-25 season with two contemporary and immersive Discoveries series productions as part of the “Bohème Project.”

Following last season's traditional production of Puccini's La bohème, the 2024-25 Discoveries series will present a modern-day take on the same opera, updated to the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, running in repertory with Jonathan Larson's Rent, with both shows performed at Atlanta's Pullman Yards (Sep 18–Oct 6). Also this fall, The Atlanta Opera's mainstage series at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre opens with Mozart's The Magic Flute, featuring Rainelle Krause in her company debut as the Queen of the Night and Santiago Ballerini as the hero Tamino (Nov 2–10). All mainstage series productions will be livestreamed and filmed for release by The Atlanta Opera Film Studio.

Discoveries Series: The Atlanta Opera's immersive “Bohème Project”

Following last season's traditional production of Puccini's La bohème, the Atlanta Opera Discoveries series continues “The Bohème Project” in September with two immersive productions. Produced by Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun with Ukrainian-Israeli American designer, director, and multimedia artist Vita Tzykun, the Discoveries series “Bohème Project” comprises repertory performances of a modern-day La bohème – with the COVID-19 pandemic in place of tuberculosis – with the Broadway show it inspired, Jonathan Larson's Rent, which updated Puccini's story of friendship, passion, and art by setting it in the midst of the 1990's HIV/AIDS crisis. Performed on the same set at Atlanta's Pullman Yards, with the action taking place in and around the seated audience, the productions will feature different casts and musical forces and will alternate nights for most of the run. On September 22 and 29, the two works will be performed back-to-back. Zvulun explains: “La bohème is such a romantic, sweeping opera that we forget sometimes that the story is about the impact on a whole generation of a devastating pandemic, in this case tuberculosis, which ravaged the world in the 19th century. Our own generation has been forever altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact will be with us for many years to come.

In 2024, The Atlanta Opera launched an experimental program that we named the “Bohème Project,” using that timeless story to reflect on three pandemics: tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19. Last season's traditional presentation of La bohème was part of our Mainstage series. In the fall, we return to the historic space of Pullman Yards to present immersive, groundbreaking productions of Rent and a brand-new adaptation of La bohème as part of our Discoveries series.” La bohème will be sung in Italian with English supertitles, and Rent will be sung in English.

The Atlanta Opera Discoveries series has been widely recognized for presenting new works, new ideas and fresh perspectives, as well as for performances in alternative venues that bring opera to new audiences across the Atlanta metro area. One of the city's premier entertainment destinations, Pullman Yards – where The Atlanta Opera also mounted its recent production of Cabaret – is now also home to Fishmonger, named among Bon Appetit's best new restaurants for 2023.

Mainstage operas: the hero's journey

The Atlanta Opera's 2024-25 mainstage season, themed to different perspectives on the so-called “hero's journey,” begins with Mozart's The Magic Flute, directed by Tomer Zvulun and starring Santiago Ballerini as Tamino, the hero prince, and Meigui Zhang as Pamina, the princess he seeks. Baritone Luke Sutliff sings Papageno, Peixin Chen is the magician Sarastro, Rainelle Krause sings the Queen of the Night, and tenor Barry Banks sings Monostatos (Nov 2–10).

Verdi's Macbeth, by contrast, brings to life the tragedy of Shakespeare's brooding anti-hero. In the title role is Atlanta Opera favorite Michael Mayes, most recently seen in Bluebeard's Castle, Dead Man Walking, and Sweeney Todd. Soprano Sara Gartland sings opposite Mayes as Lady Macbeth, and Korean tenor Won Whi Choi returns as Macduff after singing the Duke of Mantua in last season's Rigoletto (March 1–9).

Also highlighting the season is Tomer Zvulun's new production of Wagner's Siegfried, the third opera in The Atlanta Opera's Ring cycle, featuring Greer Grimsley, Stefan Vinke, Barry Banks, Lise Lindstrom, and Lindsay Ammann. Like the previous Ring cycle productions, Siegfried is directed by Zvulun in collaboration with scenic and projections designer Erhard Rom and lighting designer Robert Wierzel, with costumes by European Opera Prize-winner Mattie Ullrich. The team expands on their vision from the first two productions, creating a setting equally inspired by ancient Germanic folklore and today's Marvel multiverse (April 26–May 4).

Closing out the season is the story of an anti-heroine, Handel's Semele (June 7–15), which sees the return of soprano Lauren Snouffer to the Atlanta stage. Praised by Opera for a voice that is “lovely, pure, and flexible,” Snouffer takes the title role in Handel's moving work taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses about a love triangle between the mortal Princess Semele, Jupiter and a jealously raging Juno. Semele loses her life, but from her ashes is born her son, Bacchus.

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