BRAVO FOR A BRILLIANT AND BOMBASTIC BOHEME
THE old tearjerker still has the power to work our emotions, especially with a Mimi who sings as beautifully and acts as convincingly as Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva.
She can phrase Puccini’s melodies with melting simplicity or heartfelt intensity, and her death scene triumphs over the producer’s silly idea of propping her against a stove.
The other woman in the plot is the flighty Musetta of Russian soprano Aida Garifullina, who manages to sing superbly while acting in the most impossible, tempestuous way. The nearest to an Italian is American tenor Charles Castronovo, half Sicilian and half Ecuadorian. He was hauled out of the audience in 2018 to sing from the wings opposite his wife Ekaterina Siurina, when the Rodolfo lost his voice. Husband and wife reunite on January 31 when Siurina takes over as Mimi. Though now in his 40s, Castronovo is an ardent Rodolfo who partners Yoncheva well but also fits in with the other Bohemians, sung by Andrzej Filonczyk, Peter Kellner and Gyula Nagy.
Their scenes are loud but Nagy, as the musician Schaunard, is so genial that we are won over. Most successful in this 2017 production is Act 3, where Filonczyk’s Marcello sings sympathetically as first Mimi and then Rodolfo tell him they cannot live with each other.
Emmanuel Villaume conducts with a sure touch, the orchestra shows no hint of routine and the underemployed choristers, whether adults or the youngsters of the Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Tiffin Children’s Chorus, sing out with a will.