La bohème - Opera Holland Park, 27 June 2009
Torrential summer rain sprayed through gaps in the canvas roof as the second half began, but I barely noticed. This is not a flawless Bohème, but musically and dramatically it's one of the strongest productions OHP have come up with.
Like Jonathan Miller's recent ENO production, the action is updated to the gritty milieu of Brassaï's Paris. But unlike Miller, Elaine Kidd has imbued these characters with life and vigour. The colour scheme may be drab - the action is anything but.
She's not great with the crowd scenes - the blocking doesn't highlight the key characters nearly enough. And I think it was a mistake to make the stage so narrow and shallow - it spreads out the action too much. But the fewer people on stage, the more their beautifully detailed interactions tell. Bohème is after all about relationships, and this production gives a stronger emphasis than usual to Marcello and Musetta, to Rodolfo and Marcello, to Colline and Schaunard. Instead of a simple romance played out against a backdrop of secondary ties, there's a real sense of interwoven lives. Purists may carp, but with Rodolfo and Mimi less central than usual, the story doesn't sag in between their scenes.
And there are some wonderful performances. Aldo Di Toro sang Rodolfo gorgeously, just occasionally dipping beneath the orchestra. Mimi's vulnerability can grate if overplayed, but Linda Richardson made her a more modern, self-sufficient character - I shared Rodolfo's surprise when she finally slipped away.
Marcello seems just as prominent as Rodolfo in this telling, with his vast smeary école de l'art menstruel canvases dominating the stage in the apartment scenes. Grant Doyle sang strongly and energetically enough to handle Hye-Youn Lee's endearingly feisty Musetta.
Robert Dean set a cracking Tour de France pace for the orchestra. Tender romantic moments suffered, and so did the pathos of the final scene, but the rest crackled with energy.
The rain brought out a plague of frogs on Holland Walk afterwards. Here's one of the little fellers:
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