Preview: Edinburgh Grand Opera perform La Boheme

EDINBURGH Grand Opera check into the Church Hill Theatre this evening with a new production of Puccini's tragic tale of young love lost, La Bohème.
Donald MaxwellDonald Maxwell
Donald Maxwell

As the snow falls on a vibrant Christmas eve in the French capital’s Latin Quarter, four struggling artists live the bohemian life to the full.

When Rodolfo meets Mimi, they fall madly in love, but she is devastatingly ill and their worlds soon fall apart. The wonderfully evocative music of Puccini brings their tragic love story to life in unforgettable fashion.

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Directed by the award-winning Kally Lloyd Jones, the production features Scottish baritone Donald Maxwell. Combining the best of the amateur and professional performers, the chorus-based company has produced ambitious, fully-staged operas throughout its 61-year history and La Bohème stars a wealth of emerging talent including soprano Hazel McCain, Luke Sinclair, and baritone Timothy Edmundson.

Joining the up-and-coming talent, Maxwell will sing the roles of Benoit and Alcindoro. The baritone, who has sung leading roles with all the major British opera companies and with international companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, New York; La Scala, Milan; Vienna State Opera and Paris Opéra, began his life in opera as an Edinburgh University student when he first performed with EGO. He is delighted to be coming back to the city.

Based on Scènes de la vie de bohème, Henri Murger’s ‘novel’ of loosely connected stories, La Boheme received its world premiere at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 1 February 1896 and is now one of the most frequently performed operas in the world.

The production is sung in Italian with English surtitles.

Edinburgh Grand Opera present La Bohème, Church Hill Theatre, Morningside Road, tomorrow, Friday & Saturday, 7.30pm, £12-£20, 0131-228 1155

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