Given that Opera NZ is taking a large box office gamble in staging Janacek’s great opera Jenufa later in the year, it was financially inevitable that it would opt for a money-spinner now.
And it would seem that the Wellington season of La Boheme is sold out, and the Auckland season nearly so, confirming the enormous popularity of Puccini’s 1896 pot-boiler.
This production moves away from the traditional – Paris in the 1830s – and sets it in the present day. In doing this the creative team takes a risk. Many operas benefit from modern settings but, for me, La Boheme is not one of them. It makes its points within an atmosphere of 19th century lighting, and our stylised, even sentimental, idea of Bohemian life in Paris. Things start inauspiciously. The flat is a basic student flat with a low stud, and while it is clearly very basic it never feels really cold. Quite comfortable, in a way, and when Mimi makes her appearance she gives an impression of rude health – albeit with a cold.
The cafe scene is highly effective present-day realistic; open air within a market, and with a splendidly solid and drab apartment block as a backdrop. By Acts III and IV things are even more believable, and, thanks to the quality of both the singing and the acting, the drama grows in tension, finally reaching its conclusion in moving fashion.
And this is, at heart, a singing and acting production. Both Antoinette Halloran, as Mimi, and Jesus Garcia, as Rodolfo, are superb. Their singing is world class, they look the part, and both can act. Halloran moves from the disconcerting health of her first appearance to her consumptive end with extraordinary subtlety, and Garcia, in his mix of conflicting emotions, is entirely believable.
But the glue that draws this production together comes from Marcin Bronikowski, as Marcello, and Tiffany Speight, as Musetta, ably assisted by the Colline of Wade Kernot and the Schaunard of Robert Tucker. All act superbly and all are extremely secure vocally.
All the minor roles are nicely drawn and the conducting of Emmanuel Joel- Hornak, helped by some wonderfully secure orchestral playing, is superbly stylish.
On balance this production scores by building, in masterly fashion, from a low- key beginning to a powerful, believable, finale.
I can’t say that about every La Boheme I have experienced.
You can see the full review here-http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4522694a26666.html