``La Boheme'' Broadway Cast Recording Due Dec. 10 On DreamWorks Records; CD Will Accompany Baz Luhrmann's Theatrical Production of Puccini Classic

Business Wire, Oct 16, 2002

Entertainment Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2002

On Dec. 10 DreamWorks Records will release the Broadway cast recording of Baz Luhrmann's theatrical production of "La Boheme," Puccini's beloved 1896 opera. Esteemed opera producer David Frost is producing "Original Broadway Cast Recording - La Boheme," with Sean Murphy serving as engineer.

"Original Broadway Cast Recording - La Boheme" is currently being recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, in Marin County, Calif. Baz Luhrmann's "La Boheme," meanwhile, is now being staged at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco; it will open Dec. 8 at the Broadway Theatre in New York.

The album will reflect the show in a unique arrangement that features three separate casts performing the principal roles of the poet Rodolfo and his fragile lover Mimi. The trio of casts is required by the punishing vocal demands of a Broadway schedule. Similarly, two sets of performers will play Musetta and Marcello.

Selected from 3,000 hopefuls, the performers are an international collection of world-class singer-actors in their twenties (exceptionally young by traditional opera standards). They will be heard equally onstage and on the original Broadway cast recording. Mimi will be portrayed alternately by Lisa Hopkins, Wei Huang and Ekaterina Solovyeva; Rodolfo will be portrayed alternately by Alfred Boe, Jesus Garcia and David Miller. Musetta will be sung alternately by Jessica Comeau and Chloe Wright; Marcello will be sung alternately by Ben Davis and Eugene Brancoveanu.

Many fans of Baz Luhrmann's movies -- 1992's "Strictly Ballroom," 1996's "Romeo Juliet" and 2001's Academy Award-winning "Moulin Rouge" -- do not know that he directed opera before turning to film. He first tackled Puccini's tragic tale of Parisian bohemians at the Sydney Opera House in 1990 (when he was 28).

The action of this "Boheme" also takes place in Paris, but the time is 1957 (instead of Puccini's 1830s setting). The production will be sung in the original Italian, with English surtitles. The music director is Constantine Kitsopoulos.

Luhrmann told the San Francisco Chronicle: "What we're doing now is really the antithesis of what we were trying to do with `Moulin Rouge,' which was to theatricalize film -- to heighten the sense that you were watching something staged. With `Boheme' we wanted to de-theatricalize the production ... We want to make it accessible, clear." (Datebook, Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2002).