Bilkent Symphony Orchestra stages Puccini’s La Boheme

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The La Boheme will take place at Odeon concert hall of Bilkent and famous opera artists Bülent Bezdüz and Burcu Uyar will be on stage.

Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is staging Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s most famous operatic work La Bohème. The show, which will take place at Bilkent Odeon concert hall under the directorate of the art director Işın Metin, who has been directing the orchestra since 2010.

The opera will be hosting many renowned opera stars on the stage. Tenor Bülent Bezdüz will be playing the poet Rodolfo, soprano Burcu Uyar will be playing tailor Mimi and Serkan Kocadere will be playing painter Marcello. The singer Musetta will be played by Görkem Ezgi Yıldırım, musician Schaunard will be İnanç Makinel and philosopher Colline will be Tuncay Kurtoğlu.

The Bulgaria Joint Orchestra, under the leadership of Rumen Raychev, will be accompanying the Bilkent Orchestra.

The concert and the show is one of the most important events of the orchestra as BSO aims to spread the appreciation of music at the national level, undertaking international activities and developing cooperation with institutions abroad, through events such as the “Bilkent Concert Series,” “Turkish Composers Week,” “Education Concerts” and “The Bilkent International Anatolia Music Festival.” In pursuit of these objectives, the orchestra has toured Italy (1998), Germany (2000), Belgium (2001), Portugal (2000) and Switzerland (2002-2004 Montreux Festival). In February 2004 the orchestra also toured Tokyo (Japan).

Famous opera artists

The artists of the show are also among the best known opera artists of Turkey. From Mersin State Opera and Ballet, Bülent Bezdüz has appeared on stage in Israel, France, Sweden, the United States and Greece. His recording of Sir Colin Davis’s work “The Opera of Troy” received the best opera recording Grammy award. He has performed with great conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, Enrique Mazzola, David Perry, Pietro Rizzo, Vladimir Jurowsky, and famous orchestras including the Amsterdam Cocertgebouw and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). He has also appeared many times at the Aspendos International Opera Festival. He also made a recording of Les Troyens and Falstaff with the LSO under Sir Colin Davis.

Living in Berlin, Burcu Uyar, who plays one of the leading roles in the show, is the winner of the Associazione Lirica e Concertistica Italiana award.

In 2011, she won Andante’s Donizetti Classic Music Award for “The best female opera artist.”

Bariton Serkan Kocadere, from Ankara State Opera and Ballet is the soloist and Soprano Görkem Ezgi Yıldırım received the best voice award in the Young Soloists Association’s competition.

La Bohème as an opera is based on “Scènes de la vie de bohème” by Henri Murger. Since then, La Bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertoire and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide.

The success of the opera has carried it to the 20th century. La Bohème continued to gain international popularity throughout the early 20th century and the Opéra-Comique alone had already presented the opera 100 times by 1903.

Bilkent Symphony Orchestra will be staging the show for Ankara’s opera lovers at Bilkent University.