Click here to visit our new site --> CafeDVD 2.0 Opera Australia: La Boheme - Giacomo Puccini (1993) Rating: Starring: Cheryl Barker, David Hobson, Roger Lemke, Christine Douglas, Gary Rowley Director: Baz Luhrmann Category: Music, Special Interest Studio: Image Ent. Subtitles: English Length: 112 mins     The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.Julian Smith, Conductor. Recorded live from the Sydney Opera House, this Australian Opera production of Puccini's perennial favorite was staged by the creative team who made the hit film Strictly Ballroom -director Baz Luhrmann and designers Catherine Martin and Bill Marron. They have crafted a compelling and artful reworking of the opera, using the post-war privations of 1950s Paris as a convincing setting, and capturing, above all else, the youthfulness and intensity of the story with a raw sincerity. After the PBS showing of this recording, John J. O'Connor wrote in the New York Times, "Familiarity can breed ennui, but an occasional jolt of imaginative freshness can work wonders.Irresistble proof is available in this Boheme