La Bohème
An opera in four acts
3rd October 2013
Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
This is a new co-production between Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company and San Francisco Opera.
It opened at the Wortham Centre in Houston on the 19th October 2012 and played in repertoire through October and November.
The production then re-opened at Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Canada on October 3rd 2013 and will open in San Francisco on November 15th and 16th 2014.
The creative team and cast for Toronto were as follows:
La Bohème
| Music by | Giacomo Puccini |
| Libretto by | Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica |
| Based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by | Henri Murger |
| as dramatized by | Théodore Barrière. |
Creative Team
| Conductor | Carlo Rizzi |
| John Caird | Director |
| Set and Costume Design | David Farley |
| Lighting Designer | Michael James Clark |
| Chorus Master | Sandra Horst |
| Stage Manager | Stephanie Marrs |
| Surtitles by | Cunta Dreifelds |
| Music Staff | Anne Larlee / Emanuele Lippi (Head Coach) |
| Italian Language Coach | Manuela Scarci |
| Assistant Conductor | Jordan de Souza |
| Assistant Director | Graham Cozzubbo |
| Assistant Stage Managers | Tiffany Fraser / Liliane Stilwell |
| Assistant Lighting Designers | Wendy Greenwood / Jareth Li / Davida Tkach |
Cast
| Multiple actors denote alternating casts. | |
| Cast in order of vocal appearance: | |
| Marcello, a painter | Joshua Hopkins |
| Rodolfo, a poet | Dimitri Pittas / Michael Fabiano / Eric Margiore |
| Colline, a philosopher | Christian Van Horn / Tom Corbeil |
| Schaunard, a musician | Phillip Addis / Cameron McPhail |
| Benoît, their landlord | Thomas Hammons |
| Mimì, a seamstress | Grazia Doronzio / Joyce El-Khoury |
| Parpignol, an itinerant toy vendor | Owen McCausland |
| Alcindro, a state councillor and Musetta's admirer | Thomas Hammons |
| Musetta, a grisette | Joyce El-Khoury / Simone Osborne |
| Customs Officer | Godon Bintner / Doug MacNaughton |
| Customs House Sergeant | Clarence Frazer |
| Understudies | |
| Schaunard | Clarence Frazer |
| Benoît / Alcindoro | Doug MacNaughton |
Chorus
| Sopranos | Mary Bella / Stacie Carmona / Andrea Cerswell / Ilona Karan / Alexandra Lennox-Pomeroy / Ingrid Martin / Eve Rachel McLeod / Jennifer Robinson / Catherine Tait / Teresa van der Hoeven |
| Mezzo-sopranos | Marianne Bindig / Wendy Hatala Foley / Erica Iris Huang / Lilian Kilianski / Kathryn Knapp / Jessica Lloyd / Karen Olinyk / Vilma Indra Vitois / Paula Wickberg / Cindy Won |
| Tenors | Craig Ashton / Stephen Bell / Taras Chmill / Sean Clark / Stephen Erickson / Jason Lamont / James Leatch / Stephen McClare / Derrick Paul Miller / Conrad Siebert |
| Baritones & Basses | Kenneth Baker / Peter Barnes / Sung Chung / Michael Downie / Jason Nedecky / Michael Sproule / Jan Vaculik / Peter Wiens / Marcus Wilson / Michael York |
| Children's Chorus | Alexandra Bernstein / Chloe Blair / Saba Blyden-Taylor / Katarina Bojic / Vanessa Gadoutsis / Kiyoshi Gibson / Gabriel Gough / Morgan Graves-Ward / Perry Guloien / Claire Hamilton / Huw Dawson Hilnyanszky / Talia Kertes / Alexa Laengert / Hanna Lameneva-Wollesen / Jade Lotter / Carter MacLean / Ashley Offman / Frances Quilty / Connor Ross / Ezra Unger Brandt / Tristan Winfield-Hicks |
Orchestra
| Violin I | Marie Bérard (Concertmaster) / Diane Tait (Assistant Concertmaster) / Nancy Kershaw (Acting Assistant Concertmaster) / Anne Armstrong / Sandra Baron / Bethany Bergman / Andrew Chung / Dominique Laplante / Yakov Lerner / Jayne Maddison / Neria Mayer / Aya Miyagawa / Ashley Vandiver / Joanna Zabrowarna |
| Violin II | Paul Zevenhuizen (Principal) / Csaba Koczó (Assistant Principal) / James Aylesworth / Christine Chesebrough / Laura D'Angelo / Corey Gemmell / Elizabeth Johnston / Hiroko Kagawa / Renée London / Sonia Shklarov / Louise Tardif / Marianne Urke |
| Viola | Keith Hamm (Principal) / Joshua Greenlaw (Assistant Principal) / Carolyn Blackwell / Ivan Ivanovich / Valerie Kuinka / Rory McLeod / Nicholaos Papadakis / Rhyll Peel / Angela Rudden / Beverley Spotton |
| Cello | Bryan Epperson (Principal) / Alastair Eng (Associate Principal) / Paul Widner (Assistant Principal) / Maurizio Baccante / Peter Cosbey / Olga Laktionova / Marianne Pack / Elaine Thompson |
| Bass | Alan Molitz (Principal) / Robert Speer (Assistant Principal) / Nick Davis / Paul Langley / Eric Lee / Robert Wolanski |
| Flute | Douglas Stewart (Principal) / Christine Little |
| Piccolo | Shelley Brown |
| Oboe | Mark Rogers (Principal) / Jasper Hitchcock |
| Cor Anglais (English Horn) | Lesley Young |
| Clarinet | James T. Shields (Principal) / Michele Verheul |
| Bass Clarinet | Colleen Cook |
| Bassoon | Eric Hall (Principal) / Elizabeth Gower |
| Horn | Scott Wevers (Acting Principal) / Janet Anderson / Bardhyl Gjevori / Gary Pattison |
| Trumpet | Robert Grim (Principal) / Valerie Cowie / Robert Weymouth |
| Trombone | Charles Benaroya (Principal) / Ian Cowie / Herbert Poole |
| Bass Trombone | Mark Bonang |
| Timpani | Michael Perry (Principal) |
| Percussion | Trevor Tureski (Principal) / Ryan Scott / Steven Wassmansdorf |
| Harp (Principal) | Sarah Davidson |
| Banda | |
| Piccolo | Dianne Aitken / Maria Pelletier |
| Trumpet | Andrew Dubelsten / Brindley Venables |
| Librarian | Wayne Vogan |
| Assistant Music Librarian | Ondrej Golias |
| Stage Librarian | Paul Langley |
| Personnel Manager | Ian Cowie |