August 15 event at Redlands Bowl
Redlands Bowl stages Puccini’s “La Bohème”

“It’s grand opera, utterly and totally European,” raved artistic director and conductor Frank Fetta about “La Bohème” by Puccini. The Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival’s opera production for the season will be presented on Friday, August 15 at 8:15 p.m.

“And I believe it’s Puccini’s masterpiece,” he added.

Composed in 1896 with the United States premiere in Los Angeles in 1898, the simple story illuminates the Bohemian life of Paris in the 1830s. Constantly struggling through financial stress, the four artist friends—a poet, a painter, a musician, and a philosopher—attempt to make light of their plight while they often cave in to the tensions that poverty can bring. Into the life of this quartet enters Mimi, a poor seamstress in equally poor health, who brings renewed hope to their depressing existence.

“Our production will be a little different,” explained Fetta, “because Louis Lebherz’s stage direction makes the characters much more real and more endearing.” Lebherz, who sings throughout the world and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Opera, will also perform the role of Alcindoro who worships the flirtatious and manipulating Musetta.

Sopranos Shana Blake Hill as Musetta and Julianna Di Giacomo as Mimi also perform with the Los Angeles Opera, and Di Giacomo played Berta in “The Barber of Seville” in the 2002 Redlands Bowl production.

Tenor Stephen Plummer will sing the role of Rodolfo, the poet who falls in love with Mimi. Plummer has performed several times at the Redlands Bowl, including the role of Pinkerton in “Madame Butterfly” and Dick Johnson in “The Girl of the Golden West”.

Baritone Zeffin Quin Hollis, who has sung in New York, Utah, and Palm Beach, will sing the role of Marcello the painter who carries on a love-hate relationship with Musetta. Eric Castro will sing Schaunard the musician, and Phil Meyer, a Redlands Bowl newcomer, will sing Colline, the philosopher.

“Of all Puccini’s operas,” Fetta explained, “this one has the most tightly composed music. Like a tone poem, the music really describes the characters. With the heavy influences from Ravel and Debussy, the music is perfect for this story set in Paris.” In Fetta’s mind, this opera features big, post-Romantic music at its best

For this fully-staged production, members of the San Bernardino Symphony will provide the orchestra, and the Marina Singers will be the opera chorus.

For this 1,957th performance of the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival, representatives from the American Association of University Women and the First Congregational Church of Redlands will be the ushers, and the intermission speaker will be Jan Weder, secretary of the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc.

On Saturday, August 16, Frank Fetta will present “Opera is Awesome!” at the Children’s Summer Festival Workshop, starting at 10:00 a.m. at the Community Center, 111 W. Lugonia Ave. in Redlands. The workshop is open at no charge to children, ages 5 through 12.

All events of the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival are presented without an admission charge, with a free-will offering collected at intermission.

The Redlands Bowl is located at 25 Grant Street in Redlands between Grant and Eureka Streets, just south of Brookside Avenue. For directions and more information, contact the office at 909/793-7316 or view the website at www.redlandsbowl.org.