Bohème Out of the Box

The first San Francisco Opera production after being shuttered for 18 months was 2021's Barber of Seville, performed outdoors in Marin County under what sounded like somewhat trying conditions. Neverless, for audiences hungry for live performances, I expect it was a balm for the soul.

I'll take a wild guess that some combination of that success and the desire to meet potential audience members where they are resulted in the creation of Bohème Out of the Box, a pocket version of Puccini's La Bohème. The physical production unfolds from a container on a flatbed truck; there's not that much in the way of props or scenery; the performers look like they're wearing whatever they please.

The opera itself is trimmed to roughly an hour, but –– as I discovered when I saw Bohème Out of the Box in Hayward on June 29 –– La Bohème is put together so well that even cutting it to half its length, what's left is dramatically and musically coherent. Thank you, Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa! You knew what you were doing.

I'd been curious about Bohème Out of the Box since it first started touring the Bay Area in 2023. It hasn't made it to Oakland yet and I hope it will, but I'm sure there are pretty exacting requirements: a big enough park for the stage, canopies for a technical crew and SF Opera representatives, canopies for community organizations, etc., room for the audience to spread out, preferably shaded in case it's a hot day, and near public transport and parking. Plus a cooperative local government, and dealing with the City of Oakland is Not Fun.

Anyway, the Hayward site was awfully nice, a couple of blocks from BART and a free (!) parking garage. I wish there had been more shade, and probably I should have brought a folder chair, but whatever.

The crowd. Spot the general director! I promise you that he's in this photo.

Here's the stage, right after the performance, but you can pretend it's before the performance, right?

Side view, with canopies for dressing rooms, etc. visible behind the stage and the truck.

Tenor/director Alek Shrader introduces the show.

The cast was pretty great. Caroline Corrales sang Mimì gorgeously. Her Rodolfo was Samuel White, and he was fine, though I think I hear a budding spinto or dramatic tenor there. His voice was, perhaps, overkill for Rodolfo. Georgiana Adams was a very funny Musetta and Samuel Kidd, a great Schaunard on the main stage in June, was an equally great Marcello. I don't have photos of the latter two, alas.

Samuel White (Rodolfo) and Caroline Corrales (Mimi)

Jongwon Han as Colline singing "Vecchia zimmara," as Mimì is on her deathbed. 

Han was fantastic. There's a good view of pianist Ji Youn Li in this photo, too; the little blue umbrella was over her keyboard, presumably keeping it, rather than her, from overheating. She was a total champ, playing in the hot sun and doing a marvelous job of keeping the singers together, with each other and with her. I gotta say, performing in these less-than-perfect conditions is great training for everyone.

There was a kiosk where audience members could get on SFO's mailing list, get information about the upcoming season, and collect SF Opera schwag. 

General Director Matthew Shilvock chatting with people at the SFO kiosk.

The audience seemed to have a great time; I certainly did.