La Bohème

by Giacomo Puccini (libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after Murger)

seen by live streaming (repeat) from Covent Garden on 8 October 2017

Antonio Pappano conducts and Richard Jones directs this new Covent Garden production (the first in 43 years), with sets designed by Stewart Laing. It features Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo, Nicola Car as Mimi, Mariusz Kwiecien as Marcello, Joyce el-Khoudry standing in for Simona Mihai as Musetta, Luca Tittoto as Colline and Florian Sempey as Schaunard.

The previous production had many revivals but, even when well-loved, such things cannot go on forever; new casts begin to look trapped in old ideas. Richard Jones has been responsible for some controversial productions in the past, but here he has made an emotionally charged tribute to a work that could drown in sentimentality or misplaced jollity, while at the same time celebrating its theatricality.

To deal with the technical aspects first, the curtain is hardly used. To begin with snow is falling on the stage, one spot lighting the flakes before the start of the performance. The young men's garret room is pushed forward, a shallow unadorned and confining space close to the front of the stage so the singers are given every reason to be intimate; no distracting silhouettes of the city or other romantic touches, but just a cold room on Christmas Eve. But the major scene changes also occur in full view (if in subdues lighting). The whole garret is pushes back, and three well-lit shopping arcades are wheeled around and forward as the crowd emerges to shop in them, then they too are pushed aside and the Café Momus set is pushed into view. In the second half, the Customs House is again the only thing on stage in the snow, apart from a brazier, until it gradually disappears and the garret room is brought into play again. It's simple, unobtrusive, but adds marvellously to the atmosphere of young lives adrift in the modern (late nineteenth-century to judge by the costumes) city. (The piece is properly no later than 1848, as there are references to King Louis-Philippe and his minister Guizot, but this has been quietly ignored to allow for electric lights in the shopping arcades.)

However La Bohème must stand or fall by the quality of the cast, both as singers and actors, and this production is blessed with a superb young team. The central lovers Rodolfo and Mimi look convincingly in love, and their first meeting is acted with beautiful delicacy while their singing is first-rate. Nicola Car has a radiant simplicity as she falls for Rodolfo, and her later anguish as she realises the seriousness of her illness, and final collapse, are touchingly rendered. Michael Fabiano's Rodolfo is impetuous but likeable, and he too has a fine voice. Complementing them are the more volatile Musetta and Marcello, both also convincing in their arguments and their reconciliations.

Whether it will (or should) last for 43 years is doubtful, but it is a worthy successor to what has gone before, no mean feat considering how frequently the opera itself is performed.