La bohème

Giacomo Puccini’s lush and ravishing score returns to Chautauqua for the first time since 2003. Stage Director Keturah Stickann (La Traviata, L’Orfeo, The Mother of Us All, and Hansel and Gretel) tells this tragic tale through the eyes of an older and affluent Rodolfo, as the poet is haunted by the ghost of Mimì, and the memory of his fellow bohemians. With a full orchestra in the pit, and a strikingly reimagined chamber chorus framing the central characters on stage, this surprisingly intimate La bohème brings the grand emotions of Italian opera back to Chautauqua’s Amphitheater.

Performance

Wednesday, August 6, 2025
8:15 p.m. • Amphitheater
Ticket Price: $49–$59 (General Admission is included with the Traditional Gate Pass. Upgrade for added fee.)

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A woman in a window with curtains and the title La Boheme

MUSIC
Giacomo Puccini

LIBRETTO
Giuseppe Giacosa/Luigi Illica

SUNG IN
Italian

PAST PRODUCTIONS
1934, 1937, 1941, 1944, 1948, 1953, 1957, 1960, 1965, 1969, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1990, 1996, 2003

Creatives

Keturah Stickann

Stage Director

Keturah Stickann’s directing and choreographic work has been seen in countless opera houses across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Chile, Japan, France, Germany, Hungary, and Australia. A champion of new American opera, she has directed and choreographed multiple works by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, as well as works by Robert Aldridge, Anthony Davis, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jennifer Higdon, Laura Kaminsky, and Jose “Pepe” Martinez. Recent productions by Ms. Stickann include La bohème (San Diego Opera), Don Giovanni (Minnesota Opera), Candide (Michigan Opera Theatre), Salome (Madison Opera), Pelléas et Mélisande (West Edge Opera), Orfeo ed Euridice (Florida Grand Opera), Turandot (Palm Beach Opera), The Mother of Us All and Hansel and Gretel (Chautauqua Opera), and Samson et Dalila (Opera Colorado). Before becoming a director, Ms. Stickann was a classically trained dancer, performing in opera and concert dance around the country.

Steven Osgood

Conductor

This is Steven Osgood’s tenth season as General and Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera Company. During his tenure the company has produced operas by Puccini, Verdi, Mozart and Humperdinck alongside contemporary works by Missy Mazzoli, John Corigliano, Philip Glass and others. In 2024 he conducted the world premieres of A.E. Reverie and Love, Loss and the Century Upon Us — two chamber operas commissioned by Chautauqua Opera. With the 2025 season, the company drawn on his vast experience in the development of new works with the New Opera Workshops.

Steve has conducted the world premieres of over 20 operas, including in recent seasons The Rising World at Seoul Arts Center, Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theater, Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia, JFK at Fort Worth Opera, The Scarlet Ibis, Thumbprint, Blood Moon, and Sumeida’s Song for the PROTOTYPE festival, as well as Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar with Beth Morrison Projects. He has been conductor mentor on two occasions for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, leading the premieres of six new operas.

From 2001 to 2008 Steven was Artistic Director of American Opera Projects, where he conducted numerous developmental workshops. He founded the company’s internationally recognized Composers and the Voice Fellowship and remains the program’s Artistic Director. He conducted the premieres of As One in its sold-out run at BAM, and Paula Kimper’s Patience and Sarah at the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival.

Steve has been a member of the Music Staff at The Metropolitan Opera since 2006, with whom he has conducted workshops of several of the company’s commissions. He made his mainstage conducting debut at the Met in 2023 with Dead Man Walking, and returned to conduct Jeanine Tesori and George Brant’s Grounded in the 2024/25 season.