COMMENTS BY THE PRESS AND AUDIENCE
ON LA BOHÈME

Stuart Duncan, The Princeton Packet, June 24

 La Boheme is the centerpiece of the Princeton Festival 2008 and it is difficult to express in mere words just how magnificent it is. It has an extraordinary cast, with beautiful voices, a director in Steven LaCosse, who knows exactly what he wants and how to achieve it, and a conductor in Richard Tang Yuk, who has the 46-piece orchestra in complete control. Now add four superb sets and costumes that range from finery to poverty, an adult chorus and a children’s chorus that can both sing and act with authority and you have a production, in the festival’s fourth season, that is an absolutely stunning accomplishment.

Audience Email to Richard Tang Yuk June 23

Richard - You've done it again, and even topped yourself from last year! . Your Boheme is first-class piece of work in every respect - vocally, musically,  dramatically, scenically, etc. McCarter should be proud indeed to host such an impressive production. Having sat thru so many Bohemes in my lifetime, I felt as if the last thing I needed was yet another - but I could not have been more wrong. My hat is off to you and your colleagues.

Audience Email to The Princeton Festival June 22

Last night I attended the first performance of La Boheme and was blown away by the quality of the entire production, from singers, to set design to staging and orchestra. I am a regular subscriber to the MET and I must tell you that your production touched me more than any I have witnessed in NYC to date. BRAVO! and compliments to you all.

Nancy Plum, Town Topics, June 25

It can take a new opera company or festival a decade to really get rolling. Granted, the Princeton Festival had a bit of a base from the former Opera Festival of New Jersey, but it was still a commendable surprise to see how far the company has come in its very polished production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohéme on Saturday night at McCarter Theatre. The cast assembled for this production, which will be repeated June 27 and 29, was so natural in its interaction with each character that the audience felt immediately pulled into the drama.

Audience Email to Richard Tang Yuk June 25

The Princeton Festival production I saw last Saturday night was the best performance of La Boheme I have ever seen anywhere, including the Metropolitan Opera. By some kind of magic, everything came together. You cast impeccably –singing actors who can really sing and look and act their parts. The stage direction was flawless, the sets quite wonderful on the McCarter stage. But your conducting of the score was key – so balanced and supportive in even the most delicate places where everything came through. I heard things in the orchestra I never realized were there, inner voices and many details. And the orchestra was superb. You should feel very proud.

Elaine Strauss, US 1 News, June 25th

"It was nuanced on a microscopic level, both visually and musically. Long time collaborators, director Steven La Cosse and conductor Richard Tang Yuk led a seamless version of the opera...a production with no loose ends, they commanded a superb design team in a coterie of top-notch vocalists and instrumentalists" The entire review can be found online at Princtetoninfo.com