NI Opera today announces an ambitious new collaboration with Diva Opera to present Puccini’s La Bohème at Belfast’s iconic Carlisle Memorial Church on 16 May 2026 at 7pm.
Giacomo Puccini’s most famous opera, La Bohème, tells the poignant story of four struggling young artists living in Paris in the late 1880s.
Rodolfo, a poet, falls deeply in love with Mimì, a gentle seamstress, while his friend Marcello, a painter, navigates a stormy on-again, off-again relationship with the vivacious Musetta. Rodolfo and Mimì share a brief period of happiness, but their love is overshadowed by hardship.
Fearing that their poverty will worsen Mimì’s tuberculosis, Rodolfo convinces himself that they must part. Months later, when Mimì becomes gravely ill, she returns to the garret where Rodolfo and his friends live. The two lovers reminisce tenderly about their first meeting and their love, but their reunion comes too late. Mimì dies peacefully, leaving Rodolfo heartbroken and inconsolable. Starring Mary McCabe as Mimì and Robyn Lyn Evans as Rodolfo with Tereza Gevorgyan and Jean-Kristof Bouton as Musetta and Marcello.
Bringing together Diva Opera’s internationally celebrated chamber opera company and incorporating members of the NI Opera Chorus, this production places audiences at the heart of the story. Staged with the greatest of detail, this intimate and up-close experience performed with a Steinway grand piano, allows La Bohème to unfold within the soaring Gothic interior of the Carlisle Memorial Church, taking the audience into the Parisian garrets of the Bohemians.
For members of the NI Opera Chorus, the production represents a significant opportunity to perform staged repertoire alongside leading UK artists, further strengthening the company’s commitment to developing Northern Ireland-based singers with experience in paid, professional, high-calibre productions.
- Ticket Price: £62.50 plus booking fee and include an interval reception with drinks and canapés and a silent auction
- All Events Ticket Price: £82.50 plus booking fee – includes La Bohème plus a ticket to Morning Melodies on Wednesday 13 May at 11 am and the Costume and Wigs Skills Talk by the Diva Costume and Wigs Team on Friday 15 May at 11 am, all in the Carlisle Memorial Church
About Diva Opera, Britain’s foremost chamber opera company was founded by Anne Marabini Young and Bryan Evans thirty years ago, to take opera out of the confines of traditional theatre and bring it to unique settings. Since its inception, the company has earned an unrivalled reputation within the operatic world and beyond. Giving around 40 performances of full operas and concerts annually, they are now ambassadors for chamber opera internationally.
Highlights for the company include a performance of La Cenerentola at La Fenice Opera House in Venice, The party scene from Die Fledermaus at the Royal Albert Hall, with José Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa as special guests and performances at the Tokyo International Forum for the prestigious French music festival La Folle Journée. This year they will tour throughout the UK, Channel Islands, France and South Africa with new productions of La Cenerentola and La Bohème.
- This collaboration has been made possible through the generous support of the Laidlaw Opera Trust, whose grant directly enables the partnership between Diva Opera and NI Opera and supports the presentation of opera in innovative, accessible formats.
- Northern Ireland Opera is principally funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
- The production also marks a renewed collaboration with the Belfast Buildings Trust, custodians of the Carlisle Memorial Church.
Bringing together Diva Opera’s internationally celebrated chamber opera company and incorporating members of the NI Opera Chorus, this production places audiences at the heart of the story. Set in 1890s Paris and staged with the greatest of detail, this intimate and up-close experience performed with a Steinway grand piano, allows La Bohème to unfold within the soaring Gothic interior of the Carlisle Memorial Church taking the audience into the Parisian garrets of the Bohemians.
Diva Opera, founded over thirty years ago to take opera beyond traditional theatres and into distinctive settings, has built an international reputation as Britain’s foremost chamber opera company. Touring widely across the UK and internationally, the company’s new production of La Bohème now comes to Belfast, for the first time, in partnership with Northern Ireland Opera.
The cast stars Northern Ireland’s well-loved soprano Mary McCabe (La Voix Humaine, Eugene Onegin) as Mimì, Robyn Lyn Evans as Rodolfo, Tereza Gevorgyan as Musetta and Jean-Kristof Bouton as Marcello. McCabe’s connection with Northern Ireland Opera dates to 2010, when she first worked with the company through its artist development programmes.
Over the past decade she has grown artistically through NI Opera, culminating in her acclaimed mainstage debut as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and tour-de-force solo performance of La Voix Humaine Most recently she performed La Contessa with Diva Opera in The Marriage of Figaro, making this collaboration a natural continuation of an enduring artistic relationship. NI Opera Artistic Director and Chief Executive Cameron Menzies directed for Diva Opera between 2014 and 2019.
Clockwise from top left: Mary McCabe (Mimi), Robyn Lyn Evans (Rodolfo), Tereza Gevorgyan (Musetta) and Jean-Kristof Bouton (Marcello)
For members of the NI Opera Chorus, the production represents a significant opportunity to perform staged repertoire alongside leading UK artists, further strengthening the company’s commitment to developing Northern Ireland-based singers with experience in paid, professional, high-calibre productions.
Northern Ireland Opera will present a week of activity at the Carlisle Memorial Church, making the most of its creative residency in the building:
- Morning Melodies: Wednesday 13 May at 11am, the company’s popular Morning Melodies series will take place in the venue, offering an informal daytime recital of small, famous opera ensembles in an intimate setting. Tickets £20 plus booking fee
- Creative Skills Talk: On Friday 15 May at 11am, audiences are invited to a talk with the Diva Opera Costume and Wigs Team, offering insight into the craft, design process and practical realities of period costuming for unconventional spaces. Tickets £10 plus booking fee
- La Bohème Saturday 16 May, 7pm, £62.50 plus booking fee, inclusive of interval reception with drinks and canapés
- All Events Ticket on sale now at £82.50 plus booking fee: includes La Bohème, Morning Melodies and the Creative Skills Talk.
This collaboration has been made possible through the generous support of the Laidlaw Opera Trust, whose grant directly enables the partnership between Diva Opera and NI Opera and supports the presentation of opera in innovative, accessible formats.
Northern Ireland Opera is principally funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
The production also marks a renewed collaboration with the Belfast Buildings Trust, custodians of the Carlisle Memorial Church. NI Opera previously worked with the Trust during the lockdown award-winning film project Old Friends and Other Days and staged a previous production of La Bohème at the venue in 2021 (Opera Now: ★★★★★ “This is opera at its finest”), continuing a shared commitment to bringing major cultural activity into one of Belfast’s most striking historic buildings.
Kate Roberts, CEO of Laidlaw Opera Trust comments: “We are delighted to support this collaboration between Northern Ireland Opera and Diva Opera which brings together outstanding artistry with a deep commitment to learning, collaboration, and professional development. The chance for members of the Northern Ireland Opera chorus to work alongside Diva Opera and ultimately to perform together in La Bohème is a powerful example of partnership at its best: generous, practical, and artist‑led. We are proud to support a project that offers such a rich and meaningful exchange for everyone involved.”
Anne Marabini Young, General Director and Founder of Diva Opera comments: ‘Diva Opera is thrilled to partner with NI Opera for a week filled with inspiring projects, culminating in the premiere of our new production of La Bohème, featuring the NI Opera chorus in Act 2. Our Music Director, Bryan Evans, eagerly anticipates coaching these singers as part of their artist development programme, offering them a unique and fantastic opportunity while allowing him to discover the emerging talents of Northern Ireland.’
Cameron Menzies, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of NI Opera said ‘The partnership with Diva Opera will provide an exceptional opportunity for our emerging artists to develop their performance skills and repertoire. Through my previous work and knowledge of Diva Opera I know that this will be a production of the highest quality. We are hugely grateful to the Laidlaw Opera Trust for supporting this collaboration and look forward to welcoming audiences to experience what will be an unforgettable evening.’
Tickets for La Bohème are £62.50 plus booking fee which includes an interval reception with drinks and canapés. The production will be performed in Italian with English surtitles.
Tickets for all events at the Carlisle Memorial Church, including Morning Melodies and the Skills Talk, are now on sale at www.niopera.com
Northern Ireland Opera is grateful for the support of Diva Opera, The Laidlaw Opera Trust, Belfast Buildings Trust and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, their principal funder, in making this project possible.
- Full cast and creative biographies can be found on the event page at https://niopera.com/performances/la-boheme-carlisle-memorial-belfast/
- Northern Ireland Opera: As Northern Ireland’s national opera company, we are the only professional company in the country producing full scale work on stage and which celebrates and platforms Northern Irish artists, for audiences from their local communities and beyond. We contrast this with nimble smaller scale high quality opera events which we tour to communities across the country. From teenagers experiencing their first opera, to those with a lifelong love of the artform; our critically acclaimed produced work engages audiences in a unique opera experience rooted in a country with a rich history of music.
- Diva Opera: Diva Opera, Britain’s foremost chamber opera company was founded in 1996 by Soprano Anne Marabini Young and Music Director Bryan Evans MBE. Since then, the company has given more than 2,500 performances of 50 different operas and concert programmes and has earned an unrivalled reputation within the operatic world and beyond. Giving around 40 performances annually, they are now ambassadors for chamber opera internationally. Their acclaimed productions tour throughout the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and Europe and have been seen as far afield as Russia, Japan and South Africa. All works are presented in spectacular period costume and sung in their original language.
- The Laidlaw Opera Trust: Laidlaw Opera Trust champions live music as a uniquely thrilling art form, accessible to all. They invest in opera companies and houses who believe that opera should be part of everyone’s cultural capital. Through strategic support and grants, they aim to expand Opera’s reach and self-sufficiency. By investing in the future of this cherished art form, they enrich cultural landscapes and nurture the next generation of opera enthusiasts and artists.
Belfast Buildings Trust Carlisle Memorial is one of Belfast’s most distinctive historic landmarks. Completed in 1876, it was built by James and Anne Carlisle as an act of remembrance and civic generosity. After closing in 1980, the building fell into significant decline. Belfast Buildings Trust (BBT) successfully secured its inclusion on the World Monuments Fund Watch in 2010 and acquired the building the following year. Through careful phased regeneration, BBT has saved and returned Carlisle Memorial to public use while continuing to work with partners to secure its full restoration and long-term future. Today, Carlisle Memorial hosts cultural, creative and community activity.
A £2.9m Carlisle Memorial Phase Two programme, currently supported through a Development Phase Grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, aims to restore the adjoining Link Building, upgrade the main building’s infrastructure, and expand Creative Belfast partnerships and skills pathways for young people. Founded in 1996, Belfast Buildings Trust is a regeneration charity that uses and reuses what makes Belfast special to deliver lasting social, economic and physical impact.
