La Bohème at Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Grand Théâtre

Puccini’s La Bohème, the passionate, timeless, and indelible story of love among young artists in Paris circa 1830, is one of the world’s most popular operas. It makes a powerful first impression and reveals unsuspected treasures after dozens of hearings. At first glance, La Bohème is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things that make up our everyday lives.

Paris is not just a random setting, but rather reflects the issues and concerns of a particular time when, following the upheavals of revolution and war, French artists had lost their traditional support. The story centers on a selfconscious young man at odds with society. Lyrical and touchingly beautiful, the score of La Bohème exerts an immediate emotional pull.

The young talented Belgian conductor Karel Deseure was the assistant conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 2013- 2015. La Bohème with Opera Zuid is Karel’s opera debut. This production also facilitates one other first at the Grand Théâtre and that is the collaboration with the young musicians of the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra, Estro Armonico and the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg. The exquisite work of director Waut Koeken is already well-known to Luxembourg audiences; he worked on a number of productions such as The Magic Flute, Aladdin and Der Turm.