LA BOHEME - An Opera Of Human Scale

Some would say that La Boheme is probably the greatest love story ever written for opera, which is not entirely without truth considering that the main protagonists meet and fall deeply in love, with one dying of consumption all within the space of two hours!

It is eight years since I last saw Ellen Kent’s La Boheme – last year it was Tosca and Carmen - when Korean soprano, Elena Dee took the part of Mimi, the tragic heroine who dies in the arms of her lover Rodolfo.

And, as much as I must applaud the Italian composer, Puccini, for winning the race against Ruggiero Leoncavallo to stage his own four act version of Henri Murger’s novel more than a year before his rival’s take on the Frenchman’s literary work, I must also pay tribute to Madame Kent.

She has been instrumental in touring and popularising opera for the masses for decades now and, at 74, remains the powerhouse that continues to bring some of Eastern Europe’s top companies to Britain’s fair shores.

This time it was Kiev’s Ukrainian Opera and Ballet Theatre leading the charge and, speaking to Ellen at the interval, she smiled and said: “They all call me babushka: ‘grandmother’.”

And, in some ways, she has become the grand madame of regional opera, risking her own money over the years, to pursue her passion.

And what better way than to stage that most passionate of operas, La Boheme?

First staged in 1896, it tells the story of the four Bohemians: the poet Rodolfo (Sorin Lupu) and his friends, painter Marcello (Olexandr Forkushak), musician Schaunard (Vitalii Cebotari) and philosopher Colline (Valeriu Cojocaru). Together they share a Paris attic.

Rodolfo meets their seamstress neighbour Mimi and they fall in love whilst, at the same time, Marcello recovers his old lover, Musetta (Olga Perrier), from a wealthy admirer.

The two relationships develop stormily and the Bohemians resume their studio life. However, Mimi, dying of consumption, is brought in by Musetta. They try to save her, but it is too late and tragedy strikes. The curtain falls.

Yes, in many ways it is overly simplistic, but La Boheme is also expansive on a human scale in that it examines sweeping themes: love, loss, poverty and tragedy, never more so than with a twinge of irony considering that many Ukrainians on stage may well have lost family and friends to their country’s horrific war.

As usual all the singers were fantastic but I couldn’t help but feel that certain players, namely Valeriu Cojocaru as philosopher Colline, was getting a little long in the tooth to be playing a ‘single’ student-like character in a Parisienne garret when he is well past 60 and limping slightly!

Sorano, Alyona Kistenyova as Mimi was poetic and emotional and I loved the feisty Olga Perrier as singer Musetta: wonderful of voice, cheeky and full of restrained energy.

Outside the theatre there is a huge pantechnicon. Kent’s self-inspired sets are usually luxurious to say the least (“I studied classics at Durham University,” she told me) and today there will be a rapid switchover as Madama Butterfly prepares to stretch its wings.

I return to the Alhambra tonight for another Kent/Puccini production knowing that with the Kent magical touch I am in for a treat and, probably, a few surprises!