La bohème at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Stefan Herheim’s version of Puccini’s La bohème caused the international opera scene to turn towards Oslo. Now this extraordinary production is finally back, with Marita Sølberg in the role of Mimì.

La bohème is about a group of young artists in the Paris of the 1840s who refuse to accept the harsh realities of life: the cold winter, poverty and illness. Instead, they flee into poetic dream worlds, creating beauty and new life from that which is apparently cold and dead. This provides them with a way to cope with life’s relentless reality, and its sorrow and pain.

In Herheim’s production, Mimì does not die of tuberculosis as in Puccini’s version, but of cancer. The anguish, grief and desperation of the original are therefore given new relevance to our time – as is the power of love and human creativity.