In the second act, at Café Momus, the hellcat Musetta doesn’t just flirt with the crowd but pulls off her underwear and throws it she and her estranged lover, Marcello, boisterously kiss the same woman. In the first act, when she comes upstairs to light her candle, the already ill Mimì faints dead away rather than being concerned, Rodolfo is almost amused, tapping her with his foot. Within this lightly Brechtian frame, the acting is more or less naturalistic, with a few cartoonish touches. 1, the Paris Opera will unveil Claus Guth’s provocative staging, set a century from now. At the Royal Opera in London, Richard Jones’s fresh version - the company’s first since 1974 - recently finished its premiere run here and will return in June. The Vienna State Opera and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan both still use Zeffirelli stagings from 1963, and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich continues to present an Otto Schenk one from 1969.īut this fall brings a highly unusual coincidence: new productions of the opera at two of Europe’s most important houses. It occupies a position in the canon that is unusual even by opera’s stubbornly backward-looking standards, particularly in Europe. The central repertory has been, for better and worse, almost entirely overhauled over the past 10 years. A new “Aida” is coming in a few seasons (starring Ms. Gelb’s tenure at the Met has brought a new “Carmen,” “Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Giovanni,” “Madama Butterfly,” “Barber of Seville,” “Rigoletto,” “Cav/Pag” and “Ring” cycle.

Gelb chuckled and said, “I’m not going to find out.”

Now, asked what the public’s response would be if he did announce he was changing the beloved “Bohème,” performances of which continue at the Met through March, Mr.

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