La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini at ONB on February 26

On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 6:30 PM, the Bucharest National Opera presents La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini, featuring an internationally acclaimed cast. In the final week of the month of love (February), you are invited to witness one of the most intense love stories in the history of opera, with soprano Valentina Naforniță as Mimì and tenor Ștefan Pop as Rodolfo.

Under the baton of Daniel Jinga, in the penultimate day of February, the Bucharest National Opera invites you to La Bohème, set against the romantic backdrop of the Latin Quarter in Paris during the reign of King Louis-Philippe of Orléans. The love story between the seamstress Mimì (played by soprano Valentina Naforniță) and the poet Rodolfo (played by tenor Ștefan Pop) comes to life, immersing the audience in a long-lost world filled with passion, intrigue, conflicts, and explosive emotions, all expressed through unforgettable opera arias. The production faithfully recreates the bohemian atmosphere of early 19th-century Paris, offering the audience an engaging and authentic experience.

La Bohème is a four-act opera composed by Giacomo Puccini (1893-1895), with a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on the novel Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger, translated into Romanian in 1972 as Scenes from Bohemian Life.

A remarkable feature of this performance is its outstanding cast: in the leading roles, two internationally renowned opera stars will shine—Valentina Naforniță as Mimì and Ștefan Pop as Rodolfo.

Soprano Valentina Naforniță (as “Mimì”)

Shortly after graduating from the National University of Music Bucharest, Valentina Naforniță won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and launched her international opera career. As a young ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera, she built an extensive repertoire. Her role as Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute was followed by several remarkable debuts, including Musetta (La Bohème), Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Norina (Don Pasquale), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), and Ilia (Idomeneo).

Her 2014 Salzburg Festival debut as Zerlina was followed by performances at the Opéra national de Paris (Iolanta), Opéra de Lausanne (Countess in The Marriage of Figaro), and major European opera houses, including Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and more.

Notable highlights of her career include her performances as Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten) at the Vienna State Opera, Musetta (La Bohème) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence, under Zubin Mehta. She also starred in a RAI Italia film adaptation of La Bohème.

In the 2022/2023 season, she made her role debut as Micaëla (Carmen) at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence and sang Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa under Fabio Luisi.

Her 2023/2024 season includes her debut as Mimì (La Bohème) at the Berlin State Opera and a return as Zerlina at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

She collaborates with world-renowned conductors such as Bertrand de Billy, Gustavo Dudamel, Ádám Fischer, Cristian Mandeal, Evelino Pidò, Franz Welser-Möst, Simone Young, and Massimo Zanetti. Her first album, Romance, was released in 2020 under Alpha Records, receiving critical acclaim.

Tenor Ștefan Pop (as “Rodolfo”)

Born in Bistrița, Romania, Ștefan Pop began his musical journey with twelve years of violin studies before graduating in opera from the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca.

In 2008, at just 21 years old, he debuted as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore at the Romanian National Opera in Timișoara and as Paolino in Il matrimonio segreto at the Hungarian Opera in Cluj-Napoca. His international debut came in December 2009, at the age of 22, when he performed Alfredo in La Traviata at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, in a celebrated production directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

In 2010, at just 23 years old, he won two of the world’s most prestigious vocal competitions within a week: Operalia at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he won both First Prize and the Audience Prize, and the 6th International Music Competition in Seoul, where he also took First Prize.

Following his Operalia victory, he debuted as Nemorino at Teatro Verdi in Trieste (2010) and Hamburg State Opera (2011). In 2011, he made his Vienna State Opera debut as Elvino in La sonnambula under Evelino Pidò.

In 2013, he debuted as Alfredo at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and as Faust in Gounod’s opera at the Bucharest National Opera. In June 2014, he performed Rodolfo in La Bohème in concert at Salle Pleyel in Paris, followed by a debut as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier at the Salzburg Festival, a production also released on DVD.

In February 2015, he debuted as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, sharing the stage with an all-star cast under Alain Altinoglu. That same year, he participated in two major opera festivals: the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland, and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, where he performed in an open-air concert under David Crescenzi.

In November 2015, he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Bistrița, his hometown.

Tickets available at http://tickets.operanb.ro/ and at the Box Office of the Bucharest National Opera.

Romania Journal supports the performance as media partner.