PAINTING A PICTURE OF ‘LA BOHÈME’
A bohemian revolution will take over the Theater District this weekend as the Houston Grand Opera brings back one of its greatest love stories — Puccini’s “La bohème.”
This particular production of the four-act opera, directed by John Caird, made its debut at the Wortham Theater Center six years ago. As a co-production with the Canadian Opera Company and the San Francisco Opera, it proceeded to tour to those locations, taking with it the ingeniously effective sets and costumes by award-winning, London-based designer David Farley.
“I’ve always been a maker,” said Farley, who originally wanted to be an architect. “I enjoy designing things that can be made, the way that they work and the way that you can use as much space as possible. That’s a very satisfying process.”
In “La bohème” particularly, he built a world around the creations of Marcello, an impoverished painter struggling to make ends meet in the heart of Paris alongside his three bohemian roommates — poet Rodolfo, philosopher Colline and musician Schaunard.
Their icy-cold garret is filled with a plethora of canvases, turned away from the audience and placed as though they are awaiting their final touches. As the production moves into the second act, a live scene change reveals the front of his artwork while more canvases fly into the space, creating a mosaic of sorts that ultimately settles into the Latin Quarter.
“There’s a very abstract nature to how the scenes are created,” Farley said. “For me, it’s the painterly nature of the world, as if you are stepping into this sketchbook or are deeply grounded in his observations. That’s where it becomes quite romantic.”
There is also a tactile nature to the environment that comes to life onstage, which lures the audience into the softness of the night where a bustling crowd celebrates Christmas Eve, Farley said. In the spirit of festivity, street vendors fill the marketplace, children chase the toy-seller Parpignol, and bohemians enjoy each other’s company at Café Momus.
Rather than set the production in the 1840s as in Puccini’s original opera, which was written in 1896, or in the 1850s when the book by Henri Murger
was published, Caird and Farley decided to push their version into the future, slightly. They placed the characters in the 1890s, a period in which women’s fashion was more visually appealing with tight bodices, fulllength skirts and gorgeous bustles.
Also, given the vibrant arts scene at the time, it coincided with the life and career of an artist who caught Farley’s eye when he started searching for inspiration — Henri de ToulouseLautrec, a French painter whose
Post-Impressionist style combines contemporary subject matter with expressionistic techniques.
“I just loved his style of painting, and then started looking into his character more and found out that he lived a bohemian lifestyle,” Farley said. “He hung out at the Moulin Rouge, and he had this girlfriend who was a performer, and they had this weird little family together.”
That’s when it clicked. “This is Marcello,” he said. “These are the guys in ‘La bohème.’ ”
Poverty-stricken, the friends develop a world among themselves where they fit in, yet they continue to fantasize about attending a fancy ball among the upper class while sitting around their cramped garret — one of Farley’s favorite sets.
“You can look at it, and in every little corner, there’s a little bit of detail that tells some small piece of story about the characters who live in the space,” Farley said.
It’s rough, messy, quite unconventional and very bohemian, he said. “I enjoy that aesthetic.”