Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows members of the touring arm of the Australian Opera, OzOpera, onstage in an outdoor cafe scene from Puccini’s opera, La Boheme, as Musetta sings her famous Waltz aria from Act II. The clip opens with a title screen explaining what is to come. Musetta then sings the Waltz. Mimi and another cafe-goer join in. The stage performance is interspersed with scenes of the audience, the musicians and the conductor.

Educational value points

• The scene from La Boheme reveals why this opera, composed by Giacomo Puccini and first performed in 1896, is one of the most popular full-length operas today. Set in the bohemian artists’ quarter of Paris, La Boheme follows the story of penniless poet Rodolfo as he falls in love with a poor seamstress, Mimi. The aria in the clip and the action in the cafe typify Puccini’s lyrical melodies and musical timing.

• The highly popular aria 'Musetta’s Waltz’ is also known as 'Quando me’n vo soletta per la via’ ('When I go out alone in the street’) and is sung by Musetta, who has arrived at the cafe with her new admirer, the wealthy Alcindoro. Marcello, a penniless artist, is her former lover and Musetta is determined to regain his affection. Singing this song is just one of her many tactics. Eventually she succeeds and Alcindoro is left with nothing but the combined bill.

• La Boheme was Puccini’s fourth opera and was not a success when first produced. Puccini composed it to an Italian libretto by Luigi IlIica and Giuseppe Giacosa that was based on a book, Scenes de la Vie de Boheme (Scenes from the Life of a Bohemian), published in Paris in 1851. 'Bohemian’ is a term used for a person with artistic or literary interests who lives an unconventional lifestyle, often in poverty.

• OzOpera, shown here in performance, is part of Opera Australia. Its purpose is to give quality performances of popular operas in simple stagings in a range of venues, mostly in regional Australia. The company has developed an extensive touring schedule. In 2002 it took La Boheme to 26 centres in three states, touring with an ensemble of 12 musicians and a double cast of 12 singers. The score was reshaped to suit the small ensemble and the opera performed in English.

• In OzOpera’s 2002 tour, the role of Musetta was sung by both Cinzia Montresor and Teresa La Rocca. Teresa La Rocca is the soprano who appears in the clip. Marcello was sung by baritones Francesco Fabris and Han Lim. Like many of the singers who appear in OzOpera tours, Han Lim has been a member of Opera Australia’s chorus and was selected to take part in the Opera’s Young Artists Program. Bringing on young artists such as these is part of OzOpera’s purpose.

• Tobias Foskett, who conducts the performance in the clip, is one of Australia’s foremost young conductors. In 2001, he worked as Conductor-in-Training with Opera Australia as part of the Young Artists’ Development Program. Since 2004 he has lived in Germany and worked as Assistant Conductor with some of Europe’s most famous orchestras and opera companies. In 2006–07 he performed in Australia, Europe and America.

• Presenting a scene from an opera as part of a television documentary can be challenging. The main visual challenge is to hold audience interest as they look at a stage set. The filmmakers achieved this by using a number of cameras to provide a range of perspectives and allow cutting between long- and mid-shots and close-ups. They also incorporated footage of the audience and musicians.

• The audio challenge of presenting an aria on screen is to ensure that the lyrics can be clearly understood within the context of the opera’s plot. In live opera, surtitles are often projected onto the proscenium of the stage to present translations of the libretto. Here the silent-film technique of an intertitle is used to explain what the aria is about. An alternative approach would have been to use subtitles to show the lyrics on screen as they were being sung.

Intertitle: Musetta uses all of her feminine charge to reignite Marcello’s passion.
Orchestra music plays and we fade up to an opera stage scene. Musetta sings. Marcello and others sit in the background.

Musetta (sings) What can I do?
When people see me walking down the street
They stop and they admire me
I know the men desire me
For I can hear their sighs
As they’re undressing me with their eyes
Marcello I’m going to have a heart attack
Musetta I feel the yearning within the murmuring
I can feel it in my breast
And as they fancy perhaps they can’t see
They imagine the rest
The wretched hand of desire
Reaches across me
It makes me so happy
It makes me so happy
Alcindoro I’m appalled and disgusted
She’s not to be trusted
She’s not to be trusted
Musetta Oh, don’t deny it
Your memories are brimming too
They’re torturing and killing you
And if you don’t confess that you’re not sad
If you don’t confess I’ll pour this glass on your head
Mimi I understand
Although she’s trying to hide it
She’s still in love with him