On Sunday, November 24th, at 6:30 PM, the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca will premiere a fresh production of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème.

To learn more about this highly anticipated event, we spoke with Florin Estefan, the general director of the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca:

This year, opera houses around the world have commemorated the 100th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini's passing, celebrating his legacy as a cornerstone of verismo opera. The Cluj Opera boasts an extensive Puccini repertoire. Could you share a brief retrospective of this year's events and tell us how the Puccini's Centenary was marked at your institution?

Indeed, our repertoire includes a significant number of Puccini's works. Let me highlight a few: the triptych - Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi. We have La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, Tosca, and Turandot. To align with other lyrical institutions in Romania, and in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and the Italian Embassy, we undertook this year's Puccini celebration. In April, we premiered a new production of Tosca. Now, in November, we are staging our second Puccini premiere of the year-a fresh take on La Bohème.

This new production of La Bohème will replace the 2015 staging and debuts close to the date commemorating Puccini's passing. What can you tell us about the production's vision and the creative team behind it?

Initially, we had planned the premiere for November 29th, exactly 100 years since Puccini's death. However, due to scheduling conflicts with the performers, the premiere will take place on November 24th, with a second performance, featuring our in-house cast, on the 29th.

The creative team includes conductor David Crescenzi, director Mihaela Bogdan Sandu, and set designer Dragoș Moldovan. This production stays true to Puccini's original vision, firmly rooted in the same historical period he depicted. Given that Acts I and II take place on Christmas Eve, we've incorporated a festive atmosphere into the set design. Each year, our theater is beautifully decorated for Christmas, so we've extended this ambiance to evoke a Christmas celebration on the streets of the Latin Quarter in Paris. It is very beautiful. Audiences will find the setting enchanting.

We haven't aimed for a contemporary reinterpretation of La Bohème. Instead, we want to offer a vibrant, authentic production that allows the audience to escape their everyday lives and step into the world Puccini envisioned.

The two casts for the premiere performances on November 24th and 29th feature renowned artists familiar to Cluj audiences, as well as exciting new talents. David Crescenzi will be the conductor on the 24^th of November and Adrian Morar will be at the rostrum on the 29^th. Can you elaborate on the soloists performing on these two evenings?

La Bohème is a story of friendship-friends who, by the end, have matured through the loss of Mimì. From my experience, the most memorable productions happen when the performers were friends and between soloists who developed genuine friendships during rehearsals, fostering a chemistry that has brought the story to life.

I'm particularly thrilled to have Stephen Costello as part of this production. He joined voluntarily, drawn to Cluj and our company after previous collaborations. He will play Rodolfo. Mimì will be performed by Anita Hartig, a long-time friend returning to her hometown stage. Anita also premiered the role of Mimì in our 2015 production of La Bohème. Musetta will be played by Elizaveta Ulakhovich, a young Russian soprano based in New York, who debuted this role with the New York City Opera. The cast also includes Cristian Hodrea as Schaunard, Corneliu Huțanu as Colline, and Simonfi Sandor and Petre Burcă alternating as Benoit and Alcindoro.

The audience will feel this friendship and I think they will enjoy that.

For the second performance, the in-house cast which functions very well together... we have Diana Țugui as Mimì, Manuela Ipate as Musetta, Hector Lopez as Rodolfo, Mihai Damian as Marcello, Sebastian Balaj as Schaunard, and Zoltan Molnar as Colline. Sandor and Burcă will reprise their roles, swapping characters between the two evenings.

I believe both casts will deliver memorable performances that will captivate the Cluj audience.

You'll also be performing the role of Marcello, a character you first debuted many years ago. Revisiting a role often allows for new insights of the character and refinements for the stylistic aspects of the score. How has your portrayal of Marcello evolved this time and what have you discovered by retaking the study of the score?

Every time you revisit a role, you discover something new-phrasing nuances, dynamics, or ways to shape certain lines. Even after 20 years, as in my case with Marcello, you always have the surprise to discover things which were there in the first place, but you didn't see them.

Much of this evolution depends on the staging and your interactions with fellow cast members, because things can seem not so different, but in fact they can be quite different. There are minor things, like I've already said, things related to musical phrasing and dosing and the charater I play is not so different from the one I have played 20 years ago. I see a Marcello full of passion, a true friend in a tumultuous relationship with Musetta.

This year is almost over. I know that in the second part of the current season the traditional Opera Ball will take place. Next summer, I assume that a new edition of the Opera Aperta Festival will take place, and the premiere of the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi will be a very important event - this production was postponed due to the pandemic. Looking ahead, what are the highlights of the current season and the upcoming year for the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca?

We're working to stage as many titles as possible from our extensive repertoire, including some we haven't performed recently, like Werther. Our next major premiere will be Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, marking the 105th anniversary of our institution. Originally planned for 2020, this production requires updates, and the creative team is hard at work preparing it for a January launch.

The Opera Aperta festival will conclude the season, and we aim to grow this international event, featuring distinguished guests and debuting works in various city venues - some of them in first national audition. We want to have a diverse program.

The Opera Ball returns on March 1st, bringing prominent artists. Of course, these projects depend on securing the necessary funding, in order to do all the things we have already planned.

It's shaping up to be a busy season, offering our audience a variety of extraordinary experiences on the Cluj Opera stage.