Vancouver Opera’s 2025-2026 season comes to a close this week with a spectacular production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème.
Following a group of bohemian friends & lovers in 1830s Paris, La Bohème’s timeless popularity is perhaps owing to its simple and enduring theme of boy meets girl. Herein, on Christmas Eve, in a forlorn flat the audience first meets impoverished artists Rodolfo, a poet, and Marcello, a painter with fellow flat mate Colline, a philosopher, as well as Schaunard, a musician who has come into some work and money. To celebrate the windfall and Christmas, Schaunard treats the gang to dinner in the Latin Quarter. While the three others forge ahead, Rodolfo stays back to finish some writing, only to be interrupted by the equally chilled, weak and poor Mimi, from upstairs who doesn’t even have a match to relight her candle. Striking a match, they light the candle and spark an instant connection of the heart.
In a bustling Latin Quarter – where dozens of members of the magnificent Vancouver Opera Chorus, and Vancouver Opera Children’s Chorus make ‘the Quarter’ come alive, filling the stage like Time Square on New Year’s Eve – Rodolfo and Mimi join the others at Cafe Momus. The party encounter Marcello’s ex-lover, the vivacious singer, Musetta, who instantly rekindle their affair. The two couples are now set for a Holiday romance.
Following tried and true love story tropes the two passionate pairs burn bright but the intensity burns out and they part. Of course, for there to be a happy ending, even a tragic one, they must find their way back to each other. Do they make it in time?
Aside from the vibrant, brilliantly-staged Latin Quarter scene, La Bohème is an intimate opera, featuring a relatively small cast of characters and superb performers, lead by Maestro Jonathan Darlington and Director Brenna Corner. In order of appearance; Gregory Dahl as Marcello, as Rodolfo, Matthew White plays Rodolfo on (April 25, 30 & May 2) alternating with Zachary Rioux (April 26 and May 3). Their supporting companions, Colline and Schaunard, played respectively by Alex Halliday and Justin Welsh. As their paramours, Jonelle Sills plays Mimi (April 25, 30 & May 2) alternating with Lucia Cesaroni (April 26 & May 3). Musetta is played by Lara Ciekiewicz.
As the power couple flaming like a comet, Matthew White and Jonelle Sills are Rodolfo and Mimi, as we witnessed on Opening Night. The duo deliver their roles with a beautifully passionate but powerfully urgent sense of devotion. Beautifully melding with White‘s strong but sensitive tenor, Sills especially, holds the audience enraptured with her soaring soprano. While the pair’s celestial vocals are the focus, watching when they aren’t singing shows their full artistic prowess, managing to bring so much emotion to their tragic liaison with mere glances.
Portrayed with fervour by Gregory Dahl and Lara Ciekiewicz, Marcello and Musetta are the roller coaster relationship, reuniting, dividing and reuniting again. Their characters’ vocals follow that trend, light and vibrant at once but clashing and contrary at others while being soft and sweet at the next turn.
Since it’s premiere in 1896, the opera has been produced in every major opera house around the globe becoming one of the most familiar and timeless stories on stage. Inspiring modern adaptations like; a Tony-award winning musical by Baz Luhrmann set in 1957 which in turn served for the basis of his film Moulin Rouge, which in turn inspired a current musical theatre adaptation. Jonathan Larson’s RENT famously echoes La Bohème, shifting the story to the New World in a new century, even keeping the same character names and many references throughout the work.
While the story may be familiar, Vancouver Opera keeps audiences intrigued with the productions’ finer creative points. As expected of a Vancouver Opera production the lavish sets from Designer Steven C. Kemp supported by Lighting Designer Sophie Tang create a sensational facsimile of 19th Century Paris, from large public spaces like the Latin Quarter to an intimate dreary tenement. Dressing the huge company of La Bohème and making them all look and feel authentic is delivered to perfection by Costumer Designer Howard Tsvi Kaplan.
Putting it all together; majestic sets, exquisite costumes, a divine cast with the vast company performing Giacomo Puccini’s classic, tragic love story make a enchanting evening of entertainment. Vancouver Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème continues for three more performances; April 30 and May 2, 2026 at 7:30pm and May 3, 2026 at 2pm at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton Street. Visit vancouveropera.ca for more details and tickets.