If there were Academy Awards for opera, Torrie Allen is pretty sure the Anchorage Opera's new production of "La Boheme" would be in the running for "most interesting new concept."

"I am so proud of 'La Boheme,'" Allen said. "This is a competitive production."

Allen, the Opera's general manager and artistic director, is excited about 2011 in general, actually -- the guest artists coming in for the spring production of "South Pacific" (including "the perfect Lt. Joe Cable"), celebrating the Opera's 50th anniversary, establishing a programming formula that he hopes will bring in new audiences and helping move the company toward financial stability.

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And, of course, the new "Boheme," which takes a fresh look at Giacomo Puccini's 19th century classic and the second most frequently performed opera in the U.S.

Purists, take note: This is not your grandmother's "La Boheme." Allen's creative team has moved the story from its original 1830s Paris Latin Quarter setting to post-German-occupation Paris, circa 1945.

"This is a bombed-out Paris. It's a gray Paris. It's a recovering Paris," he said.

That doesn't mean the production will be one of those stripped-down, modern, black-curtain PBS stagings. The sets, designed by Arnulfo Maldonado, are large scale and include some three-story facades (check out construction photos on the Opera's Facebook page).

"This is Anchorage Opera going back to grand productions," Allen said. And it's been fun for the folks behind the scenes, who don't exactly get to stretch their wings on those concert productions: "The crew people always love it when we do the big sets."

One other upside to the new interpretation: By setting "Boheme" in the postwar 1940s, the Opera decreased its production costs for things like costumes, props and sets by about 15 percent. It doesn't sound like a huge savings -- but for a company that continues to struggle financially, it makes a big difference.

"We're still doing the financial dance. We've had incredible cuts," Allen said. But the Anchorage Opera isn't alone. Before the economy went south, major opera companies used to plan on losing $100,000 per production.

"We just can't do that anymore," he said.

Operagoers in Anchorage should get used to seasons like this one, with a concert production, a fully-staged opera, and a musical theater production. It makes financial sense for the company right now -- the concert is less expensive to produce than a full-scale production, and a musical will bring in audiences who wouldn't usually buy opera tickets.

"We're crossing over to the more popular realm," Allen said, adding, "we're not unusual. That's happening all over the country." The Glimmerglass Opera Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y., this year dropped the word "Opera" from its name and cast Grammy-winning operatic soprano Debora Voigt as the lead in Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun." America's best-known soprano, Renee Fleming, who was recently named creative consultant to Lyric Opera of Chicago, told Opera Today:

"I believe it may be time to reexamine the role of an opera house in American communities in the 21st century. In addition to creating new works and providing quality programming in the operatic lexicon we know and love, we can also broaden the offerings to include more from our own musical heritage."

Anchorage Opera has ventured into musical theater before, mostly in its early years, although audiences may recall a 1991 production of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd." Of course, some die-hard opera fans won't be satisfied with Rodgers and Hammerstein, but Allen said he hopes they understand the need to draw in new fans with productions that have more popular appeal:

"Look, we're trying to run a better business."