Retirees traveled to Pittsburgh by chartered bus to see the opera, La Boheme.  Set against the backdrop of 1830s Paris, La Bohème follows four impoverished artists surviving with little more than friendship, passion, and love for their art.  Emotional and dramatic, the opera has inspired both a ballet and the Broadway hit musical Rent.  

Retirees left Morgantown at 10:30 a.m. and arrived in Pittsburgh around 12 Noon. There were several restaurants near the Benedum Center where they had lunch on their own.  Included on the bus trip was a pre-opera talk by Byron Nelson, a retiree from the WVU English Department and the OLLI instructor for Opera as Drama. 

The Pittsburgh Opera offered the Retirees Association a substantial educational discount on tickets.  The run time for this opera was 2 1/2 hours with two intermissions.  The opera was sung in Italian but had English supertitles projected above the stage.  There was a pre-opera talk at the Benedum that began at 1:00 p.m.   Byron Nelson also offered a short critical recap on the way home.