Mathieu van Bellen and Mathias Halvorsen present an ambitious and first ever completly instrumental arrangement of Giaccomo Puccini’s entire opera La Bohème. The musicians have arranged the score themselves, bringing together the parts of the soloists, the choir and the orchestra into a hyper-virtuosic piece for just violin and piano. Recorded live in front of an audience, van Bellen and Halvorsen give everything they have; bringing forth each scene in an expressive and highly evocative tour de force. Drawing on styles and techniques from Puccini’s contemporaries Kreisler and Godowsky, the musicians have strived to utilise a wide array of colours and textures. Ranging from intimate love scenes to buzzing streets filled with soldiers and children, the arrangement is meant not only to reflect Puccini's orchestration, but also to build the scenic imagery and bring the characters to life.

The project was initiated as part of the program BeBeethoven, investigating new ways of interpreting classical core repertoire. Inspired by the theatre company Forced Entertainment and their legendary stagings of Shakespeare, van Bellen and Halvorsen set out to find a new way to approach opera.

Even though the core philosophy initially embraced a ‘less is more’ attitude, the arrangement of the musical material soon leaned hard the other way. Committed to get every note from the full score into the arrangement, they flexed every creative muscle; often resulting in rather wild solutions. Another, similarly ambitious task, was trying to recreate the different characters and give them strong, audible personalities. The part of every character is performed by either piano or violin, and each is given a distinct colour and temperament.

The goal of the project is to bring Puccini’s masterpiece to life in a new, transparent and more intimate way. In this marvellous opera the music and the story melt together in a uniquely poetic fashion. The aim is to spotlight these achievements, opening up the piece to an audience not normally invested in opera. This production wishes to tell, rather than show a story, and leans heavily on the power of imagination as a trigger for entering Puccini’s world.

Reviews

“...Mathieu van Bellen and Mathias Halvorsen played the complete score of Puccini's opera La Bohème in the Muziekhaven in Zaandam. In other words, the entire opera, arranged by them for violin and piano... You naturally got associations to a silent movie, but it worked out fantastic. Mimì and Rodolfo came alive before your eyes - Puccini was not often this close... As if he made up the music on the spot... “

Peter van der Lint, Trouw

“....Those who have experienced it will not soon forget the experience. The two musicians grab you by the throat from the very first moment. The crisp, light-footed playing of pianist Halvorsen makes the scenes sparkle........ Van Bellen can then let his violin shine in the romantic phrases Puccini has given his singers..... The duets between Rodolfo and Mimi are especially touching.“

Sandra Kooke, De Nieuwe Muze

“ Halvorsen and the Dutch violinist Mathieu van Bellen perform the opera "La Bohème" as a mentally silent film production..... Van Bellen sometimes seems to grow a sixth and seventh finger and Halvorsen two more hands, especially in the second act, when they let the Bohemians rejoice in the hustle and bustle of Montmartre, with its intermixing of children's choir and military band....... In the minds of the audience Rodolfo's attic room, the streets of Paris, and Mimi's deathbed come to life more vividly than on any opera stage. Puccini’s music, liberated from all its furnishings, reaches right into the unguarded regions of the listener's vulnerable heart, allowing the audience to indulge with unfettered delight in the play between virtuosity and kitsch.“

Julia Kaizer, Neue Musikzeitung (NMZ.de)