Rodolfo – Ji-Min Park
Marcello – José Carbó
Colline – David Parkin
Schaunard – Shane Lowrencev
Mimì – Takesha Meshé Kizart
Musetta – Taryn Fiebig
Benoit – John Bolton Wood
Alcindoro – Adrian Tamburini
Parpignol – Benjamin Rasheed
Customs Sergeant – Malcolm Ede
Customs Officer – Clifford Plumpton

Opera Australia Chorus
(chorus master: Michael Black)
Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
Shao-Chia Lü, conductor

Gale Edwards, stage director
Brian Thompson, set designer
Julie Lynch, costume designer
John Rayment, lighting designer

Recorded live from the Sydney Opera House, 25 and 28 July 2011

Opera Australia presents a brand new production of Puccini’s La bohème from director Gale Edwards, designers Brian Thomson and Julie Lynch. Starring two of the most exciting young singers in opera today, Takesha Meshé Kizart as Mimì and Ji-Min Park as Rodolfo. This glorious classic has been transported to the glittering Spiegeltent of 1930’s Berlin.

The energetic young cast sings very well, looks the right age, and gives an emotionally charged performance here. Young Korean tenor Ji-Min Park takes on the role of Rodolfo with charming freshness and some fine singing. American soprano Takesha Meshé Kizart, grandniece of Tina Turner and Muddy Waters…plays a very fetching and vulnerable Mimi, and is vocally secure singing Puccini’s well-loved music and emotionally compelling in the final act. The other boisterous bohemians, the Marcello of José Carbó, the Colline of David Parkin, and the Schaunard of Shane Lowrencev, all sing well and keep things lively in the first two acts. Fiebig handles her big act II showpiece with sultry vamping and a fine voice.