Rent will premiere in St Gallen, Switzerland

The cult musical set to premiere on 17 February.

Based on Puccini's opera La bohème, the rocking cult musical Rent tells the story of a group of young, burnt-out artists whose lives are shaped by the search for love and acceptance, the hope of success with their own art and the fight against HIV.

The autobiographical musical premiered in 1996, one day after the death of composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson, whose circle of friends was struggling with the then-new, unexplored and deadly HIV disease.

Based on three love stories, Rent shows the ambivalent attitude to life of the New York bohemians in the 1990s, between happiness and despair: Roger meets the drug-addicted Mimi, but does not want to commit himself because he has only recently lost his HIV-positive girlfriend to suicide; Mark has just lost his girlfriend Maureen to Joanne, but Maureen also likes to look after other women, which often leads to arguments; Tom is newly in love with Angel, but Angel is also struggling with his HIV disease.

South African director Matthew Wild stages operas and musicals in Europe and Africa and will bring the cult musical to the stage with a diverse cast. Musical conductor Christoph Bönecker, who has already been the musical director of Lady Bess and Wüstenblume, conducts the diverse musical spectrum of the rock musical, which is strongly influenced by the music of Steven Sondheim and oscillates between soul, rock, soft rock, Latin sound and tango.
 

Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson German by Wolfgang Adenberg
Arrangements by Steve Skinner
Original concept and additional lyrics by Billy Aronson
Musical supervision and additional arrangements by Tim Weil
Dramaturgy by Lynn Thomson