United Kingdom Puccini, La bohème: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Kevin John Edusei (conductor). Broadcast dwell from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 20.10.2022. (JPr)
Production:
Director – Richard Jones
Revival director – Danielle Urbas
Designer – Stewart Laing
Lighting designer – Mimi Jordan Sherin
Movement director – Sarah Fahie
Chorus director – William Spaulding
Cast:
Marcello – Andrey Zhilikhovsky
Rodolfo – Juan Diego Flórez
Colline – Michael Mofidian
Schaunard – Ross Ramgobin
Benoît – Jeremy White
Mimì – Ailyn Pérez
Parpignol – Andrew Macnair
Musetta – Danielle de Niese
Alcindoro – Wyn Pencarreg
Customs Officer – John Morrissey
Sergeant – Thomas Barnard
I typically write how within the Nineteen Nineties I chaired an occasion with Richard Jones about his (in)well-known Ring cycle at Covent Garden and a member of the viewers requested him what all of it meant, and Jones’s reply was ‘Well, what does it mean to you?’ In 2017 – when his new Covent Garden La bohème premiered – somebody requested Jones whether or not it will be ‘traditional’ and he apparently replied, ‘Please can you tell me what traditional means in this context?’ No guessing from each of those responses that Jones believes the work ought to communicate for itself.
La bohème was Puccini’s fourth opera for the stage; first placed on in Turin in 1896, it was not an immediate hit with the critics. The subsequent yr the Carl Rosa Company offered it in English at Manchester, and some months later at Covent Garden. On 30 June 1899 it was sung there in Italian and thus grew to become a staple of the repertory. That manufacturing mainly survived two World Wars till John Copley’s a lot fêted and oft-revived staging in 1974 which was changed by Richard Jones’s new one. The success of Copley’s manufacturing was its sense of cinematic-style realism involving solid, refrain and extras. There was meticulous analysis behind the late Julia Trevelyan Oman’s ultra-faithful designs and, as a eulogising programme be aware as soon as declared, ‘The doors in La bohème work’! It was a ‘jolly good show’ and I believe sold-out each time it was placed on, however I assume it was excessive time to pension it off and take a look at one thing new.
I bear in mind I had a horrible journey into London on the primary evening in 2017 so in all probability wasn’t in the perfect of moods and it was good to come back again to this La bohème once more – albeit within the cinema the place it in all probability advantages from the closeup camerawork – and be capable of reassess my first ideas. Five years in the past, I wrote ‘Jones’s alternative just isn’t but robust sufficient to fill the Royal Opera House with out a stellar solid. Unfortunately, the calibre of singers it actually wants are sometimes in a lot demand and performing elsewhere.’ It is again in 2022 for an prolonged run of performances with three casts and two conductors, although I ponder if any present – or future? – revival can match the excellence of this efficiency.
Puccini appears again in La bohème to his personal scholar days – and misplaced love? – in Milan when he shared a room with Mascagni. (Intriguingly his commencement train from the Milan Conservatoire, Capriccio sinfonico, is the music we hear first because the curtain rises.) Those within the cinema noticed an interesting 2017 evaluation of the music from The Royal Opera’s music director, Sir Antonio Pappano, and – though he didn’t identify them as such – he described how Puccini makes use of thematic memory which isn’t far faraway from Wagner’s leitmotifs. Here in La bohème, now we have themes related to the bohemians and with Mimì, amongst others. The personable and informative presenter of the printed, Elle Osili-Wood, reminded us that Puccini had by no means really been to Paris when he wrote his opera set there!
This is a really snowy La bohème and atmospherically some is seen gently falling earlier than any music is heard. This great solid – led by the young-at-heart Juan Diego Flórez – carry nice vitality to the antics of the bohemians. However, it’s by no means fully clear what attracts them to an awfully sparsely furnished and undecorated Scandinavian-style – and typical of Richard Jones and his collaborators – timber framed ‘garret’. It is uncertain whether or not it’s on the high of a home regardless of the suggestion of stairs and a ladder to the roof with an extravagant chimney as a result of it’s clearly seen at floor stage through the third act. There is nothing else on stage aside from one chair, an previous tea chest, a small heating range, a unclean pillow, and a few blankets or rugs. There isn’t any easel for Marcello and any ‘painting’ is mimed. This is one in every of only some diversions from the ‘traditional’ that features plenty of singing going through out to the viewers, Rodolfo giving Mimì a kick (as an alternative of some water) when she faints, and nobody would have hassle discovering a lacking key in such a slightly brightly lit room.
In Act II we see three big glass-roofed procuring galleries providing all method of delights that are pushed and pulled into place. Again in typical Jones trend, all of it shortly turns into overcrowded and everyone seems to be crammed right into a small house throughout the entrance of the stage. More muscle energy is required to alter what we see into the Café Momus filled with tables. Everything is in straight strains and the bohemians, Mimì, Musetta and Alcindoro are all within the first row going through out to the viewers as soon as once more. While within the opera home it’s attainable for a few of what’s going on to be misplaced in all of the hustle and bustle, watching within the cinema helps tremendously as a result of the digicam focusses on what you’ll want to see. Therefore, there was no likelihood anybody would miss Musetta eradicating her French knickers to enrage her wealthy admirer, Alcindoro, and make Marcello, her former lover, jealous. Or when Marcello and Musetta share a kiss with a bemused fellow (feminine) diner!
Act III takes place on a naked snow-covered stage with a single brazier and what appears like a prefabricated picket tavern. This is the place Marcello is portray the skin and Musetta is educating folks to sing. As Rodolfo and Mimì agree to remain collectively till Spring the small constructing retreats diagonally throughout the stage. This is a chic contact and is as if the couple are attempting to distance themselves from actual life and Mimì’s impending destiny. She is dying of tuberculosis as we all know solely too properly since she clearly has – greater than some Mimìs – a racking cough. And expire she’s going to on the finish of Act IV, which is performed pretty straightforwardly as soon as once more, regardless of the bohemians amusing themselves not with foolish dancing however by scribbling throughout their house. With Mimì having briefly revived Traviata-like, she dies on the ground together with her head propped up on the range which should not have been lit.
Not to dwell on it an excessive amount of, however the themes of a deadly respiratory illness, meals and gas poverty are so 2022 aren’t they?
Kevin John Edusei – making a powerful Covent Garden debut – performed an intensely dramatic efficiency which typically flew by at a cracking tempo although he did give Puccini’s evocative and romantic rating alternatives to breathe through the greatest moments. Although I used to be listening although the cinema’s loudspeakers, the orchestra have been their traditional dependable and virtuosic selves and the Royal Opera Chorus, in addition to the kids from The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School and The Grey Coat Hospital School, sang with nice enthusiasm and pleasure on their faces.
Juan Diego Flórez made his repute as a ‘superstar tenor’ with Rossini and is now shifting in direction of a few of the heavier ‘Romantic’ roles. He delivered to Rodolfo his trademark vocal magnificence and refinement, impeccable diction and stylish, easy phrasing, in addition to ringing high notes, together with the one he held on to extravagantly on the finish of ‘Che gelida manina’. Ailyn Pérez caressed the lengthy phrases of ‘Sì, mi chiamano Mimì’ winningly and her Act III ‘Donde lieta ne usci’ was heart-wrenching. There was additionally nice between Pérez’s brilliantly acted Mimì and Flórez’s Rodolfo all of the extra outstanding as a result of the singers had not sung collectively earlier than these performances.
Danielle de Niese was an outstanding Musetta together with her personal vibrant persona and brilliant soprano voice simply excellent for this high-spirited, dwell life to the complete character who’s slightly provocative and promiscuous initially, however suitably caring on the finish. Andrey Zhilikhovsky made an excellent Covent Garden debut together with his strongly sung Marcello, Michael Mofidian’s cavernous tones made ‘Vecchia zimarra, senti’ one other spotlight, though I assumed Ross Ramgobin – while singing properly – was slightly OTT as Schaunard. To be truthful, Puccini doesn’t give them a lot to sing and this extends to the even smaller, but pivotal, roles of Benoît and Alcindoro which bought well-characterised vignettes from, respectively, Jeremy White and Wyn Pencarreg, on this enthralling La bohème.
Jim Pritchard