Laine
Rettmer
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Recent Highlights
Laine Rettmer
Director
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Description
Set in current-day New York, this filmed opera reimagines La bohème by glorifying rooftops, mattresses, and the grungy, sexy, dirty world of being in your early twenties in the city that never sleeps. This work focuses specifically on Asian, Asian-American, and BIPOC youth and their experiences, creating a poignant subplot of immigration, assimilation, and racism.
This film embraces the current pandemic as an opportunity to set Mimì’s illness and poverty in a context that is relatable and timely. It also notes the prejudice surrounding Asians and Asian Americans as a result of this global crisis. Visually, it was shot in real locations but romanticized with animation. The story will transport you from apartments and lofts to the beautiful dreams and imaginations of the characters with animated metaphors that work to enact Puccini’s theatrics symbolically. This La bohème defies stereotypes, subverts tropes, and boasts a diverse cast while leaning on America’s greatest Asian singers.
La bohème: A film by Laine Rettmer is a co-production of More Than Musical, Opera Columbus, Opera Omaha, and Tri-Cities Opera.
Laine Rettmer
Director, Screen Play Adaptation
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Laine Rettmer
Director
Dates
Biography
Laine Rettmer is a visual artist and opera director. Rettmer’s work has been presented nationally and internationally at the Vizcaya Museum; Manifesta; MoMA Public, curated by Mel Logan and Jakob Boeskov; the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum for the exhibition, Hot Steam; the Yuan Art Museum; NADA NY, NADA Presents; and AREA gallery, among others. Rettmer's opera productions have been praised as “wickedly smart” and “devastatingly funny” by The New York Times, and “not only profound but also shattering” by the Observer. Their Barber of Seville, was named one of the top 10 classical music productions of 2014 by the New York Times and La Bohème one of the best operas of the decade by the Observer. She is currently on the Artistic Advisory Board of On-Site Opera. Rettmer has also worked extensively on new opera with such companies as New York City Opera, Ecce Ensemble, Guerrilla Opera, and Rhymes with Opera. Recent awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a MAP Fund grant for the collaborative opera, Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heat Wave, and being a resident artist at Robert Wilson's Watermill Foundation on Long Island, and MassArt’s Brant Gallery among others. In addition to teaching performance and digital media at the Rhode Island School of Design, Rettmer has served as a residential scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They hold a BFA in Stage Direction from NYU and MFA in Fine Art from SMFA Tufts.
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