decanta 15.2000 • J m C m * | 45
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j r ou’ve got to see
I f Rent." T h a t’s what
' my friends from New
York all told me.
“Rent ?” 1 sneered. "Isn’t
that some kind o f rock
musical, a rip-off on La
Bohèm e ?”
(O K , 1 admit it. I’m an
opera snob. I’m a gay man.
It’s an obligation.)
“Just go," they said.
So when the national
tour of Rent first came to
Portland, I bought the cheap
est seat possible, prepared to
leave after the first act. Long
story short: My friends were
right. I was completely
unprepared for the depth o f
this show (Hello? It won a
Pulitzer) and for the emo
tional punch it packs.
First off, there’s the audi
ence. I haven’t heard shout
ing like this in a theater since
my high school musical days.
Because o f the subject
matter— starving artists—
the producers o f Rent always
make sure $ 2 0 tickets for
Scenes from R ent
the first two rows are avail
able the day o f the show for those willing to >
line up for them. T h is, com bined with a huge
teen following (I ask you, what Broadway musi
cal has that.7), makes for a far livelier audience
than the usual W est Hills crowd.
T hen there’s the show itself. Fresh, original,
quirky and very, very gay, Rent indeed is based
on G iacom o Puccini’s L a Bohèm e, which in
turn was based on Henry Murger’s 19th century
novel about starving artists in the Montmartre
section o f Paris, Scènes de la Vie de Bohèm e.
Composer Jonath an Larson skillfully
updates the source material by setting it in
New York’s East Village and by substituting
HIV for tuberculosis. In one particularly ch ill
ing moment, a love duet is brought to an
abrupt halt when the lovers’ beepers go off,
reminding them to take their meds.
But for me the most moving sequence
comes in the second act when three sets of
lovers— one straight, one gay, one lesbian— lie
on beds and sing o f their devotion to one
another. T h e thought o f teen-age Rent fans
accepting this triptych o f lovers as normal does
my heart good. Indeed, the most popular char
acter is a drag queen, Angel, who also proves
to be the em otional cen ter o f the show.
Starting next month, Portlanders will have
the rare opportunity to enjoy Rent and La Bohème
practically back to back. Rent plays Jan. 2 to 7 at
Keller Auditorium, and Portland Opera produces
La Bohème Feb. 10 to 17. La Bohème is such an
audience favorite it’s easy to forget how daring it
was in its time, so seeing Rent should allow audi-
ences to view this classic
through new eyes.
Through the years
the opera has become
stime kind o f Hallmark
card with quaint
tableaus of young lovers
on a snowy Parisian
night. Although the
classic love story proves
irresistible, La Bohème is
really a coming-of-age
story. Puccini identified
with the characters, hav
ing lived la vie bohème
himself as a student in
Milan, playing the piano
loudly so his landlord
wouldn’t hear his room
mate, Pietro Mascagni
(who went on to write
the opera Cavalleria
Rusticana), cooking.
To get a taste of the
power of La Bohème, be
sure to rent Moonstruck
before you go. This 1987
Oscar winner is a text
book example of the
right way to use opera in
a movie.
Typically, filmmakers
get opera all wrong, like the choosing of “O Mio
Babbino Caro” for the passionate love scenes in
A Room with a View, when in reality the aria is
about a young girl serenading her father. Moon
struck not only pays attention to the words—
Rodolfo’s aria “Che Gelida Manina” (“Your Tiny
Hand Is Frozen”) begins the moment Cher and
Nicolas Cage join hands on a cold, snowy
street— but the spirit o f la vie bohème is put best
by the Cage character:
“Love don’t make things nice, it ruins every
thing, it breaks your heart, it makes things a
mess. W ere not here to make things perfect.
Snowflakes are perfect. T he stars are perfect.
Not us. We are here to min ourselves and break
our hearts and love the wrong people and die!”
W hen seeing La Bohème, listen closely to
the simple aria in the final act when Colline,
the philosophy student, bids farewell to his
beloved coat before selling it to buy medicine
for the dying Mimi. That melody returns as the
final music in the opera; by placing it there,
Puccini shows us how recognizing our mortality
makes us love all the more.
Completely by coincidence, Rent opened
on the 100th anniversary o f the La Bohème
premiere, but Larson did not live to see its suc
cess, having died o f an aneurysm the night of
the final dress rehearsal. He might be gone,
but the spirit o f la vie bohème lives on. Viva la
vie bohème !
jn
M arc A cito was in all o f his high school
musicals, so he knows what he's talking about.
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