La Vie Bohème

The summer’s dearth of classical music is finally over. In fact, there’s so much happening around town we may have trouble fitting it all in without overwhelming you.

Bellevue Opera opens its season this weekend with La Bohème by Puccini. If you’ve never seen an opera before, this would be a good one to start with. First of all, the music is already part of the general consciousness; you’ll recognize a great deal of it from car commercials and movies. Second of all, this is basically the original RENT, so you’re probably more familiar with the story than you might think. Puccini composed in the Verismo style, which is more realistic than earlier musical styles, and which in turn makes his operas very accessible. The music is beautiful, too – this is gut-wrenching stuff. Bellevue Opera is only doing two productions (tonight and Sunday afternoon), so get your tickets soon, and support this local company!

The Seattle Symphony is back, after early season concerns over the musicians’ contract and the dismissal of concertmaster Ilkka Talvi. They are playing almost every night in October. Highlights include two performances of Handel’s Water Music on October 14th and 15th at 8:00 pm, Itzhak Perlman on the 18th (for which there are no more tickets available), and Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto, featuring Viviane Hagner. It’s too bad there aren’t any more tickets to see Perlman; as the symphony’s website proclaims, he really is a living legend. He will be back at Benaroya to conduct Mozart’s Requiem in January, a combination which will be difficult to say no to when the time comes.

One thing the Seattle Symphony is good at is branching out. They have an entire Pops (read: Classical Lite) series, with guests like Wynonna Judd (October 11th) and Big Bad VooDoo Daddy (November 8th), and music from Star Wars (already happened, in September) and Hitchcock films (June 8, 2006). They also have a series devoted entirely to educating children, and from what Seattlest has heard these concerts are very creative and engaging.

Seattle Opera also opens its season this month, with a production of a very new opera by Jake Heggie, The End of The Affair, based on the novel of the same title by Graham Greene. Heggie also wrote Dead Man Walking, an opera based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, which also led to the film by Tim Robbins. By all accounts, both operas are powerful contemporary pieces, and Seattlest is excited to see The End of The Affair later in the month. When we do, we’ll tell you all about it.

We’re sure you could find a bunch of other classically-minded events this weekend. For our part, if we partake in anything, it will be the Sunday matinee of Bellevue Opera’s La Bohème.