Michael Wogulis
La Bohème
Music by Giacomo Puccini, Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Created in Advanced Scenic Design, taught by Robert Brill at University of California, San Diego.
Renderings:
La Bohème is a story about people living in a world in transition. People who are left behind by two systems: once oppressed by autocracy, and now excluded from the promises of democracy.
This interpretation of the opera reimagines the story in 1990s Moscow, centering the socio-political themes in the text by drawing upon parallel histories.
The action of this production is centered around an unkept public housing building, jarringly contrasted with bright symbols of the encroaching influence of Western Capitalism. Symbols that are eccentric and exciting at first, but are revealed to be cold and uncaring by the time the curtain falls on Mimi's death.