Opera

 

La boheme

 

Theatre Royal, Glasgow

 

Kelvin Holdsworth

 

three stars

 

SCOTTISH Opera’s latest trip to Puccini’s bohemian garret has a lot going for it. It is colourful, busy, and vibrant – though at times just a little perplexing. The music is gorgeous of course, but it sometimes seemed as though the singing was quite a long way down director Renaud Doucet’s list of things to pay attention to.

 

This is a far from conventional take on La bohème. Things kick off in the twentieth century in a Parisian flea market with a couple of French chansons to pass the time. It turned out that the action was all going to take place in the mind of an older visitor to Paris, imagining bygone years as she listened to an old gramophone record. So far so clever, though it was never entirely clear why an older visitor to Paris would conjure up a nostalgic world into which she herself would want to play the part of a consumptive, unlucky-in-love young woman.

 

It all looks sensational though. Designer André Barbe has gone to town, and even a long scene change was covered with an alluring accordion entr’acte from one of the boxes. Visually, the café scene was a triumph – I’ve never seen a busier stage. This was flamboyant opera at its most exuberant.

 

Musically things were a bit less certain than the staging. Luis Gomes and Hye-Youn Lee’s Rodolfo and Mimi conquered every obstacle to love except the orchestra, which was lovely, luscious and often far too loud. There was delicious singing from Jeanine De Bique’s outrageous minx Musetta, though, who somehow managed to find a way through.

 

Quirkier and funnier than most productions of La bohème, this production looks likely to tour well.