* What: Tri-Cities Opera presents Puccini's "La Boheme," in Italian with English Operatitles * When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.
m. Sunday * Tickets: $20, $39, $48 and $52; (students/seniors), $18, $37, $46 and $52; children, $13, $23, $38 and $52) When Henri Murger wrote "La Vie de Boh?me" in the early 19th century, who could have guessed that a short story could remain so long in people's hearts and imaginations?
By the mid-1800s, the story has become a play; as recently as 1996, it was turned into the Broadway musical "Rent." In 1896 "La Vie de Boh?me" received what is perhaps its most enduring adaptation when Giacomo Puccini turned the story of youth, starving artists, love and loss into one of the most popular operas of all time.
According to Opera America, an association for professional opera companies, "La Boh?me" is second only to another Puccini' work, "Madame Butterfly" as the most frequently performed opera in North America. It is also the opera that this weekend will open Tri Cities Opera's 2006-2007 season.
So what makes it so popular? The music is beautiful, of course, but for many people, what sets "La Boh?me" apart is the realism of the plot: young artists striving to make ends meet while they create and, of course, fall in love.
What was real then is real today -- just ask tenor Grant Knox and soprano Danielle McCormick, both resident artists with Tri-Cities Opera. Knox, who will sing Rodolfo Friday and Sunday, and McCormick, who will sing Musetta on Saturday are getting married in March. In addition to their training, rehearsal and performance duties, McCormick is a graduate student at Binghamton University.
Knox holds down two jobs, as a server at Number Five and as a church organist.
"Financially, it is hard," McCormick said of sharing a career choice, and sometimes the stage itself, with her fianc?.
"But there are great things about it. There's a comfort level that we don't have to work for -- we know each other's performance skills. But at the same time, if he doesn't feel well one night, I'll get nervous for him, and I should really be getting nervous for myself.
You care about the person, and you can't put those feelings aside when you are on stage with them."
Knox agrees that working together has both advantages and drawbacks.
"It can be stressful, but it can also be really nice because we both understand how hard it can be at times and what a struggle it is, and we can support each other and help each other out," he said.
"We've played opposite each other a lot and it's more stressful, because you can't completely focus on yourself. And part of being a performer is being selfish. It's hard to do if you have somebody you love on stage with you and you are worried about them singing and performing well.
You want them to do their best and that just adds another level of anxiety."
Like many couples who share a workplace, Knox and McCormick have to be careful about bringing work home with them.
"Sometimes we've gone offstage and I've said 'You missed that blocking!
' We joke about it, but sometimes we do take the drama home," McCormick said. "Sometimes it's hard to step out of that."
"If you screw something up -- that can come back to haunt you in an argument a month down the road," Knox said.
For "La Boh?me," Knox and McCormick are also bringing home totally different "performance hangovers."
She said she is having a blast playing the shameless, sassy coquette Musetta, partnered, not with Rodolfo, but with Marcello, the baritone.
He said he has to keep his heartstrings in check, especially in the fourth act, when his leading lady, Mimi, dies.
"It's very draining. It's such a heightened sense of drama," he said.
"There are a few times in the opera that I get really touched, where the emotion starts to creep in, but part of being a singer, you have to keep that separate because, if it gets into your voice, you're in trouble. It's a delicate balance of making it realistic and not letting it interfere with what you are trying to do."
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