La Boheme’s camaraderie charms in NZ Opera’s vivid new 1947 Parisian revival. Photo / Andi Crown
La Boheme’s camaraderie charms in NZ Opera’s vivid new 1947 Parisian revival. Photo / Andi Crown
American writer John Ardoin envied newcomers to La Boheme, discovering Puccini’s evergreen score leaping to life with the freshness of a spring day.
NZ Opera’s new production might well have even seasoned veterans succumbing, with its opening act so smoothly gliding from the blokey banter of Rodolfo and his matesto the spine-tingling ecstasy of young love.
Director Bruno Ravella and conductor Brad Cohen deserve special credit here. Ravella’s lean, character-driven approach is perfectly matched by Cohen and Auckland Philharmonia, heightening the music’s chameleon-like vitality, with irrepressible bursts of gorgeous melody.
Samuel Dundas, Benson Wilson, and Hadleigh Adams work well with Ji-Min Park’s robust Rodolfo.
Dundas, making an appreciated return to the company, is a strapping Marcello, fully matching Rodolfo in stirring duet. Minutes later, Hadleigh Adams, parting with his overcoat, masterfully blends grace and irony.
A solid cast extends to the smallest roles, from Robert Tucker’s wily Benoit to Chris McRae’s sprightly Parpignol.
Emma Pearson dazzles as Musetta in NZ Opera’s glamorous Cafe Momus scene. Photo / Andi Crown
We expect Musetta to steal the show in the second act, which Emma Pearson does, supremely elegant in waltz time and the epitome of glamour in Gabrielle Dalton’s spectacular red dress.
Park and Elena Perroni bring such intensity to the characters of Rodolfo and Mimi that we are inextricably drawn into their story and plight.
Their meeting, tentative and subtly so, blooms into glorious song, with much more to follow as both singers soar over passionate AP strings.
This La Boheme captivates the eye as well as the ear.
A 1947 Parisian setting inspires a restrained Cafe Momus from designer Tiziano Santi, a sense of revelry initially created by a crowded downstage line-up of the company’s excellent Freemasons Foundation chorus.
Be prepared to gasp at a real coup de theatre in the final act, bringing the attic into a new, tragic focus; and, more than once, we thrill to the visual delight of falling snow, heightened by Paul Jackson’s lighting.
This sparkling production will enchant newcomers and old hands, making it well worth catching on Wednesday or Friday before it travels south.
