In 1996, the Tony Award-winning musical “Rent” brought the 1896 opera “La Bohème” into the present day, telling the story of low-income artists struggling to survive at the height of the AIDS crisis. The musical shifted the setting from Paris to Manhattan’s East Village and was presented with new music and text, but much of the original story.

Minnesota Opera’s production of “La Bohème,” featuring Giacomo Puccini’s original music and libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, also endeavors to imagine the plight of Mimì, Rodolfo, Marcello and Musetta and their friends set in contemporary times. With a few design and staging decisions, the story easily translates. That’s in part because the themes in the original work (based on a book by Henri Murger) are so universal — including love, youth, economic hardship, and friendship. At its heart, the story’s focus on the allure of living a creative life surrounded by an artistic community is as relatable today as it must have been when “La Bohème” first performed.

In Illica and Giacosa’s libretto, you never get a sense the bohemians in the story are all that brilliant in their art-making. Being artists is more a matter of their personal identity and sense of place in the world. Their creativity also fuels the high drama of their personal relationships, while also not providing quite enough money to live.

Stage director Rodula Gaitanou adds a few key details that help bring this “La Bohème” into the 21st century. For one thing, Gaitanou transforms a military parade that takes place in Act II into a yellow vest protest like the movement popularized in France beginning in 2018. That artistic choice contextualizes the income inequality at the route of the struggles of the main characters.

Additionally, while the production sticks with the heterosexual coupling of the original opera, Gaitanou adds LGBTQ characters into the chorus scenes and gives a featured moment (though a silent one) to a trans character in the third act.

The designers all add to the look and feel of contemporary times, but often in less than straightforward ways. Scenic Designer takis creates a luminous set (lit beautifully by D.M. Wood) of a glass structure placed within an abstracted construction of trestles. It calls to mind both a train structure and the Eiffel Tower. Costume designer Trevor Bowen, meanwhile, mixes up a great deal of plaid and denim with metallic fabrics and bold patterns in his vision for what people in this world wear.

Won Whi Choi returns to Minneapolis for this production, playing Rodolfo on alternate nights, after stunning in his previous Minnesota Opera role as Don José in “Carmen.” His camaraderie and vocal pairing with Joo Won Kang, who plays Marcello on alternate nights, has a pleasing swagger, and Rodolfo demonstrates his focused strength in his magnetic scenes with MiMí, played by Melinda Whittington on alternate nights. With her scarlet dress and hat, local singer Keely Futterer is a scene stealer as the vivacious Musetta.

Not every moment works. There’s an exuberance to the crowd scenes that verges on chaos at times, and on opening night, the curtain got caught on the set more than once. But musically, the leads carried the story through with care, and Christopher Franklin led the Minnesota Opera Orchestra to the swelling heights of Puccini’s emotionally driven score.

Minnesota Opera’s “La Bohème”

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11; 2 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14; 7:30 p.m. Thursday. May 16; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 18; 2 p.m. Sunday, May 19.

Where: The Ordway, 345 Washington St, St. Paul

Tickets: $58-$139

Capsule: Universal themes carry “La Bohème” into the 21st century.

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