La Boheme at THE NORWEGIAN OPERA & BALLET

Love has its price. Puccini’s immortal masterpiece portrays how strongly we humans value our own freedom and how much we fear death. Rodolfo and his bohemian friends, confronted by his lover Mimì’s incurable illness, ingeniously seek to conceal their powerlessness.
“Faith, hope and love appear as the weapons of helplessness in the struggle against a merciless reality. Puccini emphasises this so sincerely that we are forced to sympathise with these capricious and superficial artists in survival,” says director Stefan Herheim.

Currently one of the world’s most sought after operatic directors, Stefan Herheim has reaped success with productions of Julius Cæsar in 2005, Tannhäuser in 2010 and Lulu in 2011. Expectations are high for his new production of La Bohème, the first here since 1963, which teams him for the first time with Norway’s renowned international conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen. Featuring in the role of Mimì are Marita Sølberg and Mariann Fjeld Olsen – this production marking her debut in the role – supported by a team of outstanding young artists in what is perhaps the most gripping and popular musical drama of our times.