Festival Opera
La boheme
Festival Theatre
Eleanor Campanile
four stars
THE set immediately conveys Bohemian life. Cramped flats surrounded by neighbours. Black railings and flights of stairs, busy and exciting. Before anyone sings, we see they are poor but joyful.
La bohème is a simple love story. Two young people fall in love – romantic poet, Rodolpho, and Mimi, a frail seamstress. Another couple, Marcello and Musetta, bring some comedy through their fiery relationship.
Alex Olle, the director, expertly compares the pairs throughout. The poet and dressmaker move less and touch more – they can’t bear to be apart. Marcello and Musetta push each other and storm off more than once. Pure and steadfast contrasts with exhilarating and volatile.
The production doesn’t shy away from the poverty and fragility of the Bohemian life. Prostitutes wander around upstage, a tramp sleeps on a bench. Mimi’s ill health is played up from the start to suggest she embodies the danger of this unpredictable way of life.
The costumes were brilliant. No glamour. Their cheating landlord wears a dirty tracksuit, Mimi is in trainers and a plain cardigan. Whenever people were dressed up, the outfits looked cheap.
Some aspects of modernisation worked. The Minion balloon was amusing: the dab Colline performed was a clumsy nod to modern youth.
Teatro Regio Torino's production was spectacular but I couldn’t connect. The singing was magnificent but opera as a performance style is too remote for me. It’s an innovative interpretation, worthy of praise yet not as moving as expected.
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