Opera Australia’s new production of La bohème turns its back on our increasingly digital world, in favour of paint, cloth and handmade theatre. As Jansson J. Antmann discovers when talking to director Constantine Costi and his design team, this is no exercise in mere nostalgia; it is a deliberate journey to rediscover true artisanship.

A scenic artist working on one of Dann Barber’s backcloths for Opera Australia’s La bohème. Photo © Rod Gotfried

For director Constantine Costi, creating a new production of Puccini’s La bohème for Opera Australia means going backwards. Not necessarily to the opera’s original 1830s Parisian setting for the youthful escapades of its bohemian protagonists, but back to an older idea of what theatre can be: physical, handmade...