On January 5 and 9, Etienne Dupuis will bring one of his most performed roles to the Wiener Staatsoper, Marcello in La bohème. While the January 2 show had to be cancelled due to several cases of the Covid19 Omicron variant, the other two will see a cast featuring Nicole Car as Mimì, Saimir Pirgu / Benjamin Bernheim as Rodolfo,  Slávka Zámečníková as Musetta, Ryan Speedo Green as Colline and Martin Häßler as Schaunard. Eun Sun Kim will conduct.

The performances will take place in Franco Zeffirelli’s historic production that premiered in 1963 with Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, Rolando Panerai, Giuseppe Taddei, Ivo Vinco and Hilde Güden as the “bohémiens” and Herbert van Karajan in the pit.

Etienne Dupuis first sung Marcello when he was a 19 years old singing student within the Summer Opera Lyric Theatre programme in Toronto. A signature experience for the young baritone, who stated in a recent interview with Opera Lounge that back then he realised he “could become a professional opera singer”. Opera houses the star baritone later perfomed the part of the young painter include the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Teatro Real of Madrid and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

[Photo by Yan Bleney]