The new ‘La Bohème’: Opera for dummies or much needed Gen Z update?

Giacomo Puccini was 38 years old when the curtain first rose on his ‘La Bohème’ at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896. Thanks to the talent of that ‘Millennial’ of yesteryear, it is still a worldwide success. On the centenary of its author’s death, ‘La Bohème’ is still an immortal masterpiece that continues to amaze and speak to younger generations.

Opera for TikTokers

However, the digital natives and the Gen Z kids don’t have the same patience, and are the target audience of the new shortened version of ‘La Bohème’. The opera was reduced by an hour to accommodate the curtailed attention span of the TikTok generation.

The new version debuted on the stage of Perugia’s Teatro Morlacchi with the Perugia Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maestro Enrico Bronzi (Sagra Musicale Umbra). It lasts as long as a football match without extra time: just ninety minutes compared to the two hours and forty of the four full acts. Less downtime, more rhythm.

Doing a copy paste of Puccini’s masterpiece is Gianluca Terranova, a highly regarded tenor who has graced the stages of the greatest opera houses, from La Scala in Milan to London’s Covent Garden. Terranova also plays the lead male role of Rodolfo.

“A way to bring TikTok’s audience closer to opera,” shares Terranova.

“The cuts were made for the purposes of the narrative. The pieces that have been ‘sacrificed’ are mainly those where there is the chorus, because the Opera in a short version must also be sustainable with costs,” Terranova goes on to explain. “We have brought a narrative of the opera on stage, to entice a perhaps distracted audience. I am thinking perhaps of young people who are on social media. So we can say to them: ‘Hey, guys here we have something wonderful that you absolutely must know’.”

Critical controversy

On the centenary of Puccini’s death and less than a year after the recognition of opera singing as an intangible heritage of humanity, the Perugia experiment has raised quite a bit of controversy, with purists stating that Puccini’s masterpiece cannot be touched.

Others disagree, saying that Puccini did not write the opera for the purists, but wrote La Bohème to move everyone.

Regardless of varying stances, at the end of the 90-minute show, in a sold-out theatre, the shortened ‘La Bohème’ received thunderous applause.

Puccini’s opera will be repeated on 17 and 18 September in the theatres of Orvieto and Todi.

The plot of La Bohème

The full version of ‘La Bohème’ is an opera in four ‘pictures’ by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. The story is inspired by Henri Murger’s novel “Scenes from the Life of Bohème”.*

In an attic in the Latin Quarter of Paris, a group of young and penniless bohemian artists meet: the writer Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the philosopher Colline and the musician Schaunard.

The love between the embroiderer Mimì and Rodolfo is the heart of the story, which rests on the universal narrative pillars of youthful passion and joie de vivre, friendship and light-heartedness, set against the equally vivid themes of disillusionment and illness. In the end, Mimì dies of consumption and with her, innocence and the idea of a careless also perishes.

Told to Gen Z?

The short version of ‘La Bohème’, what some critics have called “opera for dummies”, is not the only expedient to bring opera back into play and introduce it to those who tend to avoid it. One ploy is to bring the story back to the present day.

“What would the characters in the opera be like if we met them in 2024?” we read in a post published on the social pages of the Arena di Verona, a cultural institution whose objective is the production and dissemination of musical culture.

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In the staging, signed by Alfonso Signorini, the events told in ‘La Bohème’ – originally set in 1830s Paris – take place “among shared attics, precariousness and the fury of first love”.

“It’s an opera that speaks of young people and to young people it must continue to speak,” the post goes on to say. “To tell the story, we borrowed the voice of Gen Z: four talents from TikTok and Instagram reinterpret the protagonists through viral trends on social media. In the video Mimì is Zoe Massenti, actress, dancer and creator with 4 million followers on social media.”

The language also changes, as female protagonist Mimì now has a crush on Rodolfo. “‘He’s got swag'”: it’s cool, says influencer / actress Zoe Massenti in the short and subtitled introductory video to the opera.

And those subtitles have their importance. In a recent study by YouGov, the UK-based international market research and data analysis company, 61% of viewers aged between 18 and 25 said that when they sit down to watch TV they choose to turn on subtitles, even if they are not hearing impaired.

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With the addition of more and more detailed subtitles to TV programmes and films, including sound effects and song names, viewers include this option when tuning in to their favourite programme.

Still capturing the hearts (and ears) of millions of fans

According to the latest SIAE report, the world of live entertainment is growing. Last year, opera could count on 2.1 million spectators. The Arena di Verona Foundation, with its three-month festival, accounts for almost 20% of the national total.

After three months and 50 evenings of live performances, Verona recorded its best ever box office total of €33, 620, 000.

Attendances in the amphitheatre increased. There were 417,354 spectators this summer, which represents 15,000 more than last year, 57% of whom came from 136 countries around the world. Germany remains on the podium, spectators from the United States, Canada, Spain and Korea are rising. Also on the rise are young people in attendance, with +3% for under 30 and +5% when it comes to 30-40 year olds.

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For the first time, the Arena di Verona also landed on TikTok, involving an even younger audience. On social media, users in the 25-34 age bracket equalled those over 35.

At the end of the Festival, the Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels had reached almost 59 million contacts, +26% compared to last year, with followers from all over the world – in particular from Germany, Brazil, the United States and Argentina.