LSU Opera presents the classic opera Puccini's La Boheme at the Claude L. Shaver Theater starting Thursday and running through the weekend. It is the fourth most performed opera in the world. It traditionally takes place in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s, but LSU's rendition comes with a Louisiana twist.

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Swede White/WRKF Actors perform during rehearsal of La Boheme at LSU's Claude L. Shave Theater.

As director Dugg McDonough gives notes before a dress rehearsal, the cast asks questions about tightening up the performance. McDonough hopes by incorporating Louisiana into this rendition of La Boheme he'll make an already accessible opera even more so. He thought of "not only the obvious ‘Frenchness' of the French Quarter, but also the spirit of the French Quarter and the more I studied about the quarter and learned things I didn't know about the different Bohemian periods it just seemed like a natural thing and I thought maybe this will help people identify with the piece in a different way without distorting the music or the characters. We also found some other images as we began working on the piece that really resonated such as setting Act Three right on the edge of one of the cemeteries."

This performance of La Boheme will be set in the 1920s instead of the 1840s in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. Some nuances in the performances have been adapted to fit the new setting and McDonough says this is a great opportunity for someone who has never seen an opera before.

"Some of the food for example. There's a hint of Mardi Gras in the last act with some beads. It tells a great story with great characters. If they don't know the characters before they always fall in love with them in the piece. The tunes are ravishingly beautiful. It's like a wash of gorgeous romantic sound for people who want big romance."

Sophomore Yen Lin Chin plays the role of Musetta. She has been singing since she was 10 years old but became interested in opera when she lived in Malaysia where there aren't many opera performances. Her teachers encouraged her to pursue training in opera.

"I watched videos and DVD's and exposed opera by myself and decided I love opera and that's what I want to do I want to perform. I want to be a performer. I think it's really challenging and at the same time it's really fun."

Singer Richard Coleman also has a long history of performing but was turn onto opera later in life. He plays the character of Colline and is dressed in a ‘20s period suit with a top hat. He mainly sang in church and choir but competing at an event changed his focus.

"I was doing a voice competition somewhere and one of the teachers came and told me that you should consider doing opera because it's perfectly made for yoru voice and not a lot of African American singers go that route. They choose more popular music and things like that."

During the notes the director asked the performers to focus on the character and not get too caught up in singing so as not to compromise the performance. Maria Thomas plays the character Mimi who is highlighted in the opera as a main tragic character. She says because the cast can relate to La Boheme's plot of struggling artistic and intellectual bohemians living together that it's not a struggle to focus on character.

"I've never sung a role before that fit me so perfectly. So I don't really have to be thinking about my technique. I can just think about the action and the passion and it's so wonderful. It's such a great show. Who was it that said, oh Vincent, about us being musicians and poor and we can relate to living with a bunch of other artists and being poor."

Vincent Terreganno plays Marcello. As his makeup is being applied in a dressing room, he agrees the music is not the most challenging part of the show.

"The music is not challenging. It practically sings itself [because] it's so well written. Most challenging, and I think this is for every performance, is melding everything that an actor has to do, which is sing beautifully in this case, give a convincing performance of your character, all the while you are together with 50 other musicians on stage in the pit and a conductor."

As the run through begins, the house lights go down and Act I begins, and the singers voices fill the theater with the drama of operatic singing.

La Boheme opens Thursday night at the Shaver Theater in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building at LSU.