Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Opera Project XIX Giacomo Puccini, La bohème

World-renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa launched this educational opera project in the year 2000 with the then president of ROHM Semiconductor, Kenichiro Sato, to cultivate the next generation of musical talent through opera. The 2023 opera project is the staging of Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème that was canceled in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. This masterpiece, which portrays the hopes and loves of poor bohemians in Paris, is brought to the stage by director David Kneuss, and with set and costumes by Robert Perdziola. The staging is accompanied by the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Orchestra, which features young musicians from Japan and around Asia selected by audition, and closely tutored by members of the Saito Kinen Orchestra.