Why does "La Boheme," an opera about struggling artists in Paris 130 years ago, still move audiences today? "It is a love story about ordinary young people who are poor but full of passion, so audiences today can relate to it," said soprano Hwang Su-mi and tenor Kim Gun-woo, who were born the same year and will play the lovers in next month's production. Both found the answer in a love story that transcends its era.
The Seoul Metropolitan Opera will stage "La Boheme" at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts' Grand Theater from Nov. 5 to 8. The production revives director Eom Sook-jung's 2024 staging, which features a set shaped like a giant book and a glittering Christmas street scene. Kim Kwang-hyun conducts, and Hwang and Kim Gun-woo appear on the 5th and the 7th.
In a recent interview with The Seoul Economic Daily, the two singers pointed to the opera's delicate treatment of human emotion as its greatest appeal. "Puccini was a master of push and pull," Hwang said. "He moved between rubato, where the tempo is freely varied, and a tempo, where it returns to the original pace, and he was skilled at tightening and loosening the listener's heart." Kim Gun-woo added: "Unlike bel canto opera, which prizes the beauty of the music itself and vocal technique, Puccini's works let the music unfold according to the dramatic situation and the characters' emotions. Like a film score, it draws the audience into the protagonists' feelings."
First performed in 1896, "La Boheme" depicts the love, friendship and loss shared by poor young artists in 19th-century Paris. It is also the basis for the musical "Rent." "'La Boheme' is one of the works with the lowest barrier to entry for newcomers to opera," Kim Gun-woo said. "It moves quickly, and the music and the emotions are tightly linked, so modern audiences can get drawn in easily." He singled out Act 3, in which the lovers consider separating because of poverty and illness even as they love each other, as the high point of the work.
For Hwang, this is her sixth "La Boheme" — a veteran Mimi. She won the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2014 and has performed on major European stages, including the Theater Bonn in Germany. She first sang Mimi in 2016 and has now carried the role for a decade. She currently teaches at Kyung Hee University while continuing to perform.
Even as she returns to the same role, she brings new emotions and interpretations each time. This time, she describes Mimi's life in terms of the four seasons. "If Acts 1 and 2, which show the fresh love of young people, are spring and summer, then Acts 3 and 4, which move toward death, are autumn and winter," she said. "Even at the end, I hope what comes through is not so much the illness but the longing for the person she loves and the sincere wish to stay together to the last."
Kim Gun-woo, who won the Operalia competition in 2016, has performed at leading houses worldwide, including the Royal Opera House in London. After years focused on bel canto repertoire by Rossini and Donizetti, he has been expanding into Puccini and Verdi since entering his 40s. "Now that I have tried Puccini, it is so much fun that I wonder why I did not start 10 years ago," he said with a laugh.
The two singers, who are the same age, first performed together about three years ago in the Seoul Metropolitan Opera's "The Magic Flute." "Hwang naturally gives off Mimi's atmosphere, which makes it easy to sink into the acting with her," Kim Gun-woo said. Hwang replied that Kim Gun-woo "is full of energy, a singer with a strong give-and-take."
