La Boheme Reviews

Indulge Magazine- Highly Recommended

"...Puccini’s La Bohème remains one of opera’s most devastating sleights of hand: an ostensibly simple tale of young artists in 1830s Paris that, upon each revival, reveals how intimately it understands hunger—artistic, romantic, and existential. The story persists because the emotional architecture is eternal: Rodolfo, a poet with more passion than francs, meets the fragile seamstress Mimì by the glow of a dying candle; their love blooms, falters, and finally succumbs to the brutal arithmetic of poverty. Around them, Marcello, Musetta, Schaunard, and Colline parry squalor with wit, bravado, and the stubborn insistence that joy is still possible. Puccini’s genius lies in his precision—laughter echoes against thin walls of hardship, and tenderness survives only because it must."

Broadway World- Highly Recommended

"...The excellent artistry of the singers additionally bolsters the production. Gihoon Kim’s Marcello seems to be driven by emotion pulled directly from his core while Oreste Cosimo’s Rodolfo resonates like an idealistic, lovestruck figure pulled from a Caillebotte painting. As Musetta, Erica Petrocelli (an alumnus of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists Program) flits into rages of comic frustration while maintaining poise and elegance. Janai Brugger (another Domingo-Colburn-Stein alumnus) conjures rapturous applause as the tragic heroine, Mimi. Especially in the third and fourth acts, Brugger conjures a deeply human performance that elevates Mimi above a character from a melodrama. William Guanbo Su, in his LA Opera debut as Colline steals many of his scenes with clarity in his timbre."