Two decades ago, Mark Sforzini stepped up to the podium at St. Petersburg’s Palladium Theater to conduct the first production from a brand-new opera company. It was Puccini’s “La Boheme,” and that fledgling company was St. Petersburg Opera. Both were immediate successes with audiences.
That success has continued for St. Petersburg Opera, which has grown into a powerful regional force in opera. This month, the company celebrates its 20th season by revisiting its inaugural offering. Its new production of “La Boheme” is set for June 5-14 at the Palladium.
The summer months are generally relatively stagnant for performing arts in the Tampa Bay area—Opera Tampa’s season ended some weeks back, and the 2027 season won’t start until February of next year—but St. Pete Opera has made a tradition of summer productions.
“We did that first production of ‘La Boheme’ in June of 2007, so we were historically rooted in doing an opera every June,” Sforzini told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “It always sold very well, and we’re always kept that through the years. It’s always done really well for our box office.”
St. Pete Opera: ‘La Bohéme’
Time Fri., June 5, 8 p.m., Sun., June 7, 2 p.m., Tue., June 9, 7:30 p.m., Fri., June 12, 8 p.m., Sun., June 14, 2 p.m. and Mon., June 15, 11 a.m.
Location Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg
St. Pete Opera has a reputation for sprinkling its seasons with lesser-known works—such as its recent production of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare,” and even Stephen Sondheim shows, along with titles almost everyone knows. Its June productions are largely reserved for the top-10 operas that almost everyone has at least a passing familiarity with.
“Usually, the ‘Carmen,’ the ‘Traviata, the ‘Madama Butterfly,’ the ‘Boheme,’ those are going to be in that early June slot,” Sforzini said.
“La Boheme,” with its dual love stories, its appealing narrative and wealth of familiar melodies, is a natural fit for St. Pete Opera’s summer tradition.
“It is just traditionally one of the most popular operas of all time,” Sforzini said. “I think the thing about ‘Boheme’ is that Puccini was furthering what was called the verism movement in opera, which is opera about real life and real people.He made what was just every day, mundane stuff in these people’s lives—he makes us care about it.”
The story, which was very loosely adapted into the popular musical “Rent,” concerns a group of young men who are prototypical starving artists in 19th century Paris. They’re so poor that, to keep from freezing, they burn the pages of a play one of them wrote.
Into their lives come Mimi, a beautiful but sickly who’s destined for imminent death, and Musetta, a carefree young woman. Rodolfo, one of the Bohemians, falls in love with Mimi, while his friend Marcello rekindles his past relationship with Musetta. The contrast between the two love stories is one of the aspects of the narrative that gives its power. While Miming and Rodolfo have to value every moment of their limited time together, Musetta and Marcello fritter away their relationship in petty jealousy.
(People who have never attended live opera are often surprised to learn that English translations of the libretto are projected above the stage, making the story easy to follow.)
“We can see ourselves in these people,” Sforzini said. “It’s not opera about gods and mythological figures, or even huge historical figures like Cleopatra or Julius Caesar. It’s real people.”
But it’s mostly Puccini’s music that brings ‘“La Boheme” its status as one of the world’s’ greatest operas.
“Puccini is such a master of music,” Sforzini said. “The score, it’s like a movie score, the way the music matches the drama. The music keeps going all the time and it propels everything. Puccini is almost obsessed with the tempo if the music changes to match the situation. In earlier operas a piece would start and it would kind of stay at the same tempo throughout. Puccini’s always changing the speed of the music, he’s always changing the mood of the music.”
And because Puccini is such a master of melody, several arias from “La Boheme” have become familiar to almost everyone—even people who have never attended or listened to an opera in their lives. They’ve been adapted into popular songs or used as incidental music in films.
The Palladium is maybe not the most natural fit for an opera company. It was built as a church, not an opera hall, so there’s no orchestra pit. The orchestra is onstage with the singers. It could be awkward, but St. Pete Opera has turned it into an advantage.
The onstage orchestra palpably alters the experience for both the audience and the performers.
“I think it’s part of our brand,” Sforzini said. “The music is happening in a very intimate proximity. The orchestra musicians and the singers are actually closer to each other than they would be if the orchestra was in a pit. There’s a charge and an energy that comes from that closeness.”
The orchestra is generally behind the singers. For some productions, the ensemble is plainly visible to the audience; for others it’s completely hidden by the set.
“We mix it up,” Sforzini said. “For this particular production, the orchestra’s going to be pretty well hidden. I don’t think you’re going to see the orchestra in this one. But they’ll be up there, very close to where the singers are.”
“La Boheme” is the last opera of the company’s 20th season, but there’s one more production ahead. The 4th of July Pops Spectacular at the Mahaffey Theater will offer a blend of patriotic numbers, classical music, and popular songs. It starts at 6 p.m., and it will end just in time for audiences to experience fireworks over the water right after.
It will also be the last opera at the Palladium for a while. The theater is scheduled to close for a year while it undergoes extensive renovations. St. Pete Opera will move its 2027 mainstage season to Opera Central, its building at 2145 1st Ave. S which it uses for rehearsals, children’s operas and cabaret shows. The space only seats about 150 people.
“It will be a much more immersive experience,” Sforzini said about the new digs. “You can imagine this amazing talent that you’ve heard singing on our stage and what it’s going to feel like to hear those voices with a chamber orchestra in close proximity. The talent is just going to be washing over you.”
Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
This article appears in May 28 – June 03, 2026.
