Puccini’s La Boheme
You know, one of my favourite (non-cussing) words is “pretentious”. I seem to use that a lot when visiting so called hip and happening places like Bangsar and Sri Hartamas. It seems like everyone is going out of their way to impress other people there, and more often than not my friends will hear me say “Bitch look at all these pretentious fuckers”. Just the other day I saw this college girl wearing thick white rimmed glasses that only Dame Edna Average would think fashionable, and I was just sitting there staring at her with my Whatevia-tude saying “You’re impressing no one, bitch”.
Anyway, same rule applies to folks who claims they’re ‘learned’ or ‘cultured’ just because they get the Philharmonic Orchestra or the operas sung in foreign languages. I used to think they’re all pretentious little fuckers. My friends say I have a sickness. And I don’t really deny it. I am, however, will be eating my words cause I’m going to try my hand at sitting through an opera this weekend.
I don’t think I am ever going to get operas, but if I was going to start trying, it might as well start with Puccini’s La Boheme. I just recently found out that Astro will be showcasing Puccini’s La Boheme this weekend. And for those who really get me, they’d know that I’m only doing this because of my Rent obsession.
The broadway musical Rent by Jonathan Larson was based on Puccini’s La Boheme, an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henri Murger. The world première of La bohème was performed in Turin on February 1, 1896 at the Teatro Regio (now the Teatro Regio Torino) and conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. (that sentence was directly copied and pasted from wikipedia, FYI)
I have never heard of Puccini’s La Boheme prior to watching (and obsessing) over Rent. But what I have found out after reading some articles, is that the similarities between Rent and La Boheme is astounding. It really is amazing how Jonathan Larson used Puccini’s La Boheme as a basis for the musical. If you know what Rent is about, and later read about La Boheme, you WILL be blown away by how much of a genius Jonathan Larson is. He really is a genius. Pure genius.
I got my Rent 2-disc Widescreen Special Edition DVD from Amazon.com last week and needless to say I was really over the moon. I was not, however, expecting to be moved quite as much when watching the 2-hour documentary on Jonathan Larson and the creation of Rent, but I was. I might write on the review for the DVD later though.
On a final note, I urge those of you who have watched Rent to give La Boheme ago. I’m pretty sure I won’t understand a single word sung in this Italian opera and I hope there will be subtitles, but at the very least, I’m pretty sure we’ll be amused at how amazingly different and at the same time amazingly similar the two are.
~Pretentious Bastard Izad~
