After conquering the world's great stages, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón are now laying claim to the big screen. Shooting on the theatrical film La Bohème began in Vienna last Friday under the direction of Robert Dornhelm ("War and Peace," Oscar nomination for "The Children of Theater Street"). The five-million-euro film is produced by Jan Mojto's Unitel, one of the biggest producers of classical music films in the world, and Kurt Mrkwicka's MR Film of Vienna. Starring alongside Netrebko and Villazón are Nicole Cabell, George von Bergen, Adrian Eroed and Vitaly Kovalyov. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays under Bertrand de Billy; Walter Kindler is responsible for the cinematography. 
"My chief interest in filming the opera La Bohème is to set a memorial to the singers Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón," says director Robert Dornhelm. "I think that it's possible to captivate not only opera fans with this film, this music, this story." The two singers have been hailed as the dream couple of the opera world at the latest since the production of Verdi's "La Traviata" in Salzburg in 2005, which was seen by 1.5 million viewers in Germany and Austria alone. The concert they gave for the football World Cup in front of 20,000 viewers at Berlin's Waldbühne in 2006 was aired live in Germany by ZDF and shown in 27 other countries around the world. Most recently, the couple shared the opera stage in Massenet's celebrated opera "Manon" at the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. Both events were recorded by Unitel and have been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. In Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón play Mimi and Rodolfo, who have fallen immortally in love with one another, but are tragically separated when Mimi dies of consumption. 
Dornhelm most recently shot the four-part adaptation of Tolstoy's "War and Peace," which aired to sensational ratings in early January in Germany, Austria, France and Italy. Dornhelm also directed the documentary film "Karajan – Or Beauty As I See It" (Unitel in coproduction with ZDF and ORF) on the occasion of Karajan's 100th birthday. The film, which will be aired in early April on ZDF and ORF, contains many previously unpublished pictures of the star conductor. 
La Bohème is a production of Unitel and MR FILM in coproduction with ZDF and Classica, in association with IMG, with the support of ÖFI (Österreichisches Filminstitut), FFW (Filmfonds Wien) and ORF Film-/Fernsehabkommen.