La Boheme coming to Schuler Auditorium

Opera Coeur d'Alene is bringing Puccini's La Boheme to Schuler Auditorium in Boswell Hall on the North Idaho Campus on Sept. 24 and 26.

The performance will include professional opera singers, Christina Kowalski, Shana-Blake Hill, Chad Berlinghieri, Stephen Hartley and Alexander Scopino, as well as local favorites Max Mendez and Bill Rhodes singing principal roles as well as the Opera Coeur d'Alene Chorus.

The show will be directed by Todd Robinson, who has sung and directed across the country and internationally, and is general director of Opera Coeur d'Alene. It will be conducted by Maestro Duane Skrabalak, who was the Artistic Director of Tri-Cities Opera for over 30 years. The production will be accompanied by the Opera Coeur d'Alene Orchestra and sung in Italian, with English supra-titles projected above the stage.

"La Boheme," by Giacomo Puccini, a love story of poor "bohemians," was first performed in 1896. According to Opera America, it is the second most frequently performed opera in the United States.

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24 and 2 p.m. Sept. 26.

There will be a pre-curtain lecture one hour before each performance given by show director and Opera Coeur d'Alene's Todd Robinson. Tickets are at NIC Box office: 769.7780 or www.cdasummertheatre.org.

Prices are $35 and $29 for adults and $18 for students.

Opera Coeur d'Alene is a locally based professional production company which has provided live opera for North Idaho for 10 years. Its members get a special free preview social with singers behind the scenes.

Information: www.operacda.com