Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 7 La Boheme #2

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 30 | January 10 - 31, 2019 When did you hear the piece for the first time? I heard in my childhood the famous arias from Mimì and Rodolfo, but I heard the complete opera when I was 16 years old, and I played a complete run of La bohème in Venezuela with the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra as a substitute violinist. What was your gut response to the piece at the time? I was in love with every bar! I also had tremendous curiosity about what was happening onstage, and was lucky to have a seat where I could see everything. That curiosity had a lot to do with why I became a conductor. What do you think are the basic reasons that account for this piece’s popularity? Great music, great libretto, and perfect structure. It attaches itself immediately to the musical memory of everyone who hears it. Its melodies stay in your mind, thanks to simplicity, emotion, and its contrasts. Puccini very often repeats the same themes, so they can serve as reminders of certain ideas – friendship, love, the Bohemian life, fatality. They come in different tempos, in different harmonies and colors and context. Think of the first meeting of Mimì and Rodolfo: it’s so special because it totally contrasts with what was happening before with the four Bohemians. Suddenly it’s pianissimo , with string texture, muted and rich harmonies; this sudden change of ambiance touches the emotions of the listeners, singers, orchestra, and stage director. La bohème is full of moments like this one. Do you have a favorite section of La bohème ? Act Three, which is absolutely the turning point. It’s where the big drama starts, and it makes sense of the first two acts. How do you view the structure of the opera? It’s like a symphony. The first act is the first movement, the allegro . The second act is the scherzo , and it’s tough to coordinate everything there, especially at the end with the banda [stage band]. The third act is the adagio , where it’s often hard to keep the tension up, to keep the musical phrases flowing, and to avoid falling into the trap of sentimentalism. The fourth act would be the last movement, with musical recollections of what happened in the first, second, and third movements within, of course, a different context and the tragic ending. It is a perfectly proportioned opera, like a few others in the repertoire that are also masterpieces, like The Marriage of Figaro or La traviata , just to mention a few. The piece’s challenges include dealing with the conversational passages, which are so abundant. It is all about bringing out the contrasts of the music and the text. At the beginning of the opera, for example, you sense immediately that Marcello is a completely different character from Rodolfo. In those first lines for Marcello, he sings often on the same note, almost spoken singing, but then comes Rodolfo, with more melodic lines and excitement in the voice with lines moving up and down. Think also of Mimì, who has two different sides to her vocal character. She sings simply, almost monotonously, when she’s talking about herself and her everyday life. But when she talks about her feelings , her inner world, her vocal lines expand to an incredibly impassioned, full sound. When I’m working with the singers and the orchestra, I am always very keen on keeping these contrasts present. They are essential to give sense to the text and tell the story in the most transparent and touching way for the audience. What’s the secret of doing justice to the big soaring moments that everyone waits for in this opera? The success of the big moments in this opera requires a perfect relationship between the score and the freedom to interpret, with perfect construction of the crescendi, dynamics, emotionally, vocally and orchestrally. Puccini was a composer who liked to write in great detail. The word “freedom” is relative, because it should be a sensation within a rigorous respect for the score. What makes Puccini such a terrific orchestrator? The richness of the musical colors! He has the “ italianitá ” in the sound with moments of impressionism as well. Some of his pieces recall Debussy in certain moments. The way he uses the percussion, the way he mixes woodwinds, his massive brass sections, and the delicate strings. The second act of Bohème is a masterpiece of orchestration, with the sparkling character of the percussion, the children's choir, the brilliant trumpets, and how he builds this big, massive scene. A TALK WITH THE CONDUCTOR 
Venezuelan-Swiss conductor Domingo Hindoyan, who debuted at Lyric leading La bohème, spoke in August with Roger Pines, Lyric’s dramaturg. TODD ROSENBERG TODD ROSENBERG Maria Agresta as Mimì and Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo at Lyric, October, 2018.