Over the past few months, Mathieu van Bellen and I have performed our La Bohemè at various festivals in Germany and the Netherlands. It is a most exciting project to present and we could not have been happier with the response so far. We were especially grateful for this wonderful review in Neue Musikzeitung by Julia Kaiser:
“The Norwegian pianist Mathias Halvorsen (also the curator of the Podium Festival in Haugesund, which is one year older than the Podium Festival Esslingen and shares the same artistic approach) reveals the essence of a risky venture. Halvorsen and Dutch violinist Mathieu van Bellen perform the opera "La Bohème" as a mentally silent film production. The entire score is divided between these two instruments, without missing a single note. Regardless of the singers, who do not exist, the two musicians follow Puccini's detailed playing instructions, at the end they even reach the actual Toscanini tempi. 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. Off to the right of the musicians, texts and stage directions are projected on a large screen, so that 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. Pucchini'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.” Read the full review here