The shortened version of La Bohème was staged for the first time in Perugia: it lasts ninety minutes instead of two hours and forty minutes. The new format is the idea of tenor Gianluca Terranova, who also plays the role of Rodolfo.
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00:00A shortened version of Puccini's La Boheme premiered in Perugia, with the goal of captivating
00:07Gen Z audiences and drawing young people closer to opera.
00:13Reduced from two hours forty to just ninety minutes, the opera was produced by acclaimed
00:18tenor Gianluca Terranova, who himself plays the role of Rodolfo.
00:23Now the purists will not laugh because I already have some versions ready for twenty minutes
00:30and I'm also working on the social ones for three minutes.
00:35Because it's like a mega trailer, it's a promotion of the opera.
00:39Now we do it in the theater and an hour and a half becomes a show already, right?
00:44It's a story of the opera, to entice an audience, maybe distracted, maybe young people who are
00:54on social media, to say, guys, here's something wonderful that you absolutely have to know.
01:03It comes less than a year after UNESCO gave Italian opera cultural heritage status and
01:09Terranova's experimental format has drawn criticism from opera's traditionalists.
01:40Well, it was a great performance and it certainly facilitated the understanding of the audience
01:57and the story, especially for those who don't know it fully.
02:01It was the first time I attended this opera.
02:06It was, in my opinion, a wonderful experience.
02:09Maybe in a reduced version and maybe a waste, I don't know.
02:12I'm very surprised to see so many young people here.
02:16It's a beautiful opera, very well done, good direction, great singers.
02:27The Ricopera is undergoing a major and controversial transformation.
02:31The goal is to get Gen Z hooked on it, but obviously the real challenge is to reach the goal
02:38without trashing the masterpieces that have made the Italian opera so popular all around the world.
02:45Stefania De Michele, Euronews, Perugia.