“La Bohème” is the most popular work ever staged at Opera Memphis.

Giacomo Puccini’s opera, originally set in 1830s Paris, is similarly popular around the world, providing the impetus for works in multiple mediums. 

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Some of those, too, have become smash hits, like the musical “Rent,” set in 1990s New York and Baz Luhrmann’s musical film “Moulin Rouge,” set in 1900s Paris. (The latter later was adapted into a Broadway musical, earning 10 Tony Awards.)

Opera Memphis keeps the “La Bohème” story intact in its newest production, but moves the setting to 1915 Beale Street in Memphis. 

Around this time, “Father of the Blues'' W.C. Handy employed in his band the “Dean of African American Composers,” William Grant Still.

Reflective of the era, the main cast is Black, as well as the conductor, Jeri Lynne Johnson, founder and artistic director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia and stage director, Dennis Whitehead Darling, who was Opera Memphis’ first McCleave Project fellow.

The cast includes Chauncey Packer as Rodolfo, Marquita Richardson as Mimi, Reginald Smith Jr. as Marcello, Kayla Oderah as Musetta, Eric McKeever as Schaunard and Edwin Jhamal Davis as Colline.

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Memphian Marcus King plays the roles of Benoit and Alcindoro.

“La bohème” translates from French as “the bohemian.”

The “La Bohème” story has been translated to different time periods and audiences because of its universal story, according to Packer.

“This opera has the archetypes of several communities, several collectives,” he said. “I play the poet and the writer. Then we have a musician, we have a painter. Mimi is a seamstress. Musetta is an entertainer. We have this collective of artists and people who are living and surviving. In ‘La Bohème,’ it’s set originally in Paris, but again it could easily be a group of a collective of friends and artisans and people living in Memphis.”

This is Packer’s third time being a part of a “La Bohème” production. It’s his first time in an all-Black “La Bohème” casting and his first role with Opera Memphis.

The Metropolitan Opera tenor also believes “La Bohème' serves as an archetype for modern TV sitcoms that also center around six friends. 

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Like “Living Single” and “Friends.”

“It’s ‘Living Single,’ it’s the same kind of thing,” Packer said. “You’ve got four friends, you know living and then two guys come over. Same thing as ‘Friends,’ you have this collective of six friends, living and surviving through hard times. Good times. There are laughs in this opera. Someone is deathly ill. … But we still have to live. We still have to survive the winter.”

Illness is something relevant to this version of “La Bohème,” even outside of the work on stage. 

Ned Canty, general director for Opera Memphis and dramaturg for “La Bohème,” first began seeking grants for the production back in 2017, the same year the organization began its McCleave Project.

That project, meant to deepen the organization’s response to equity in engagement and diversity in opera, is named for Florence Cole Talbert McCleave. Born in Detroit, and later a resident of Memphis, McCleave was one of the first Black opera stars.

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In 2017, Opera Memphis toured the city with an updated version of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Telephone” featuring smartphones and an all-Black cast. Performances of the 20-minute opera were free.

McCleave community conversations led to the new “La Bohème.” It was supposed to premiere in 2020, then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. 

The libretto also directly references illness.

“I was telling someone when describing a scene, because Mimi is ill with consumption or tuberculosis, (it relates to) people ... having just gone through COVID,” Packer said. “You know to have someone’s chest be wracked with a cough. And for someone to not be able to breathe and you as a loved one want to help them and can’t.”

Also relatable from the opera, Packer said, is a lover who prioritizes their career over marriage.

“Even though it’s being promoted at times, as the ‘Beale Street Boheme,’ if anything it just lets you know that we have our own ‘Boheme’ here over time,” Parker said. “We’ve had this. And there’s nothing forced about it. It’s welcoming to rich people to poor people to come experience this artistic, humanistic experience. That’s the vehicle of theater.”

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The “La Bohème” chorus includes 20 adult singers and 10 children singers. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra will play in the pit during performances.

Memphis Black Arts Alliance supplied about 10 chorus members, as well as between 10 and 15 people working front of house at the venue, acting as ushers, taking tickets and welcoming people.

“Being that we represent the Memphis Black Arts Alliance and we preserve the legacy of Black arts in Memphis, this (production) is historic on another level because this is based on (1915 Beale Street), which of course at that particular time was mostly African American,” said MBAA executive director Lar’Juanette Williams. 

Canty said that this version of “La Bohème” is an approach rather than a gimmick. All Opera Memphis shows will not exclusively have Black casts in the future. But, he said, the Black on Beale “Bohème” also is not a one-off.

“La Bohème,” because it’s one of the great works, it’s one of those weird pieces where it’s possible for us to have it all,” Canty said. “To do a piece that somebody seeing it for the first time can enjoy it; someone seeing it for the 10th time can find something new in it. … Not every piece allows you to do that. Not every piece is a great invitation to come to the opera.”

“La Boheme” closes the 2023-2024 Opera Memphis season. Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 17 and Saturday, 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center at the University of Memphis.