Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production of Puccini’s La Bohème returns to the stage this fall, headlined by breakout star soprano Juliana Grigoryan, a recent graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program who has been winning vocal competitions and making major debuts around the world.
There are few experiences for newcomers and devoted opera lovers alike more satisfying than a performance of La Bohème at the Met (November 4–December 12). In legendary director Franco Zeffirelli’s beloved production, a mainstay of the Met’s repertory for more than four decades, Puccini’s timeless masterpiece immerses audiences in the bohemian lives of young friends and lovers in 19th-century Paris with a score that features some of the composer’s most ravishing—and heartbreaking—music.
This fall, rising Armenian soprano Juliana Grigoryan takes center stage as the feeble seamstress Mimì, a role she feels especially connected with. “Mimì is one of those roles that lives in your heart,” Grigoryan says. “She’s tender, loving, passionate, and full of quiet strength. Each time I sing her, I discover something new emotionally.” First-prize and Audience Award winner of the 2022 Operalia World Competition, grand-prize winner of the 2022 International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition, and recipient of the 2024 Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, Grigoryan made her company debut as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot in the 2023–24 season and has quickly made a name for herself at leading opera houses across Europe and beyond, with Mimì becoming a signature role. “She’s a pure soul who loves deeply and faces her fate with dignity,” she says. “Puccini gives her such luminous, intimate music, and I love exploring those moments of vulnerability and hope.”
She’s also a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, joining such illustrious alumnae as Christine Goerke, Ying Fang, Erin Morley, Lisette Oropesa, and Sondra Radvanovsky. “The program was an essential part of my artistic growth,” she says. “Returning to the Met this season feels a bit like a homecoming, and I’m returning with all the growth and experience the Met helped me build.”
Grigoryan appears at the head of two different dynamic casts. Through November 8, she stars alongside Freddie De Tommaso—hailed by the U.K. Times as “the tenor from Kent who sings like Caruso”—as Rodolfo, soprano Heidi Stober as Musetta, and baritone Lucas Meachem as Marcello, with Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson on the podium. Later in the month, Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni takes the podium, with tenor Stephen Costello as Rodolfo, soprano Mané Galoyan as Musetta, and baritone David Bizic as Marcello
