If as the saying goes “music has to be played or sung from the heart to the heart”, this is especially so in the case of Puccini’s all-time great, and the opera lovers’ all-time favourite, La Boheme.  La Boheme is sheer liquid beauty from the word go.  The molten passion which once released simply flows on and on in highly-charged passionate singing is difficult to equate in Italian Opera.  La Boheme is all about beautiful singing.  Puccini is well-known for his creative powers when it comes to composing endearing melodies which sets him firmly in the finest of the Italian tradition, yet sets him apart in some way.  It is his uncanny ability at conjuring the most ravishing of musical phrases seemingly out of nowhere.  La Boheme is the supreme testimony to this particular trait.  The music is not merely catching.

It is quintessentially emotional.  If there is the ideal way to sing one’s heart out to one’s love than it is surely the poignant and sweeping  O soave fanciulla.  The duet which can aspire to upstage the love scene at the close of Act I has yet to be composed! 

Teatru Astra will be presenting a vintage production on the 29th and 31st October 2015 - the highlight of the fourtheenth edition of Festival Mediterranea. Be proud to be able to say, I was there.

Booking is now open. Contact the festival heldesk on +356 2155 0985 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Tickets sell at €70 and €50.  A limited student offer at €15 per ticket for the Thursday performance is available.