LA BOHÈME TRANSCENDS ALL COVID RESTRICTIONS
‘It would be a shame if the INO’s production of the Puccini opera were not available again online’
‘Byrne brought a refined display of control to her singing’
La Bohème BordGáisTheatre Date ★★★★★
When Dmitri Shostakovich and his friend Benjamin Britten were discussing opera in 1966, Shostakovich asked: ‘What do you think of Puccini?’ ‘I think his operas are dreadful.’ ‘No, Ben, you are wrong,’ said Shostakovich: ‘He wrote marvellous operas, but dreadful music.’
It’s a neat anecdote, told by the producer Colin Graham, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Could you actually write marvellous operas while composing dreadful music?
And nobody watching the recent Irish Opera Company’s outstanding concert production of Puccini’s La Bohème, streamed from the Bord Gáis Theatre, would agree with either of them. Puccini’s skills as a composer for the stage were very much on display: his ability to combine a rich vocal score with a symphonic orchestral accompaniment for highly emotional effect — melodramatic, aimed at your heartstrings, but very effective. And there were great performances despite the limitations imposed by the curse of Covid.
It would be a shame if the production were not available online again at some time. I’ve no doubt INO will keep us up to date at irishnationalopera.ie
As a concert version, the singers had to stand in line in front of the onstage orchestra, expressing the full range of emotions using vocal firepower and finesse, with minimum body movement. And they managed it with style and humour where that was possible.
The main chorus was in the stalls and the children’s chorus was upstairs. That must have presented logistical problems for the director and for the conductor (Sergio Alapont). But it all worked brilliantly because the opera is so powerful, musically and dramatically, and the cast, chorus and orchestra were such a splendid unit.
Celine Byrne really is an exceptional performer, strong in her duets and exquisite as the dying Mimi. It’s a very tricky role, that has to suggest mental strength and physical vulnerability; if her death is not skilfully handled, it can seem maudlin and tedious.
But Byrne brought a particularly refined display of vocal and emotional control to it. It was characterisation of the highest order.
She was very well contrasted with the tougher and earthy but generous Musetta of Anna Devin, accompanied by a sugar daddy whom she treats like a poodle.
The Bohème characters are a feckless bunch of would-be artists, barely scraping a living by painting, writing and music, joined by the mortally ill Mimi. They’re a jolly, though not an altogether lovable group. When one of them arrives with some money he’s just earned they decide to blow it at an outdoor cafe. But in fact they keep the money and leave Musetta’s sugar daddy to pick up the bill, while Musetta picks up the more attractive Marcello (David Bizic). Which finally leaves Rodolfo (Merunas Vitulskis) remorsefully mourning Mimi whom he has effectively dumped because of her illness. No joyful finale available.
Britten wasn’t alone in being snooty about Puccini. (He could be rude about Brahms too). Critics, lukewarm over Puccini’s music are often critical of his melodramatic style, considering his stories everything from squalid to sordid. And considering that his female characters are the central part of his best operas, there’s a very high body-count among them.
Poor Mimi dies of consumption, Manon Lescaut succumbs to thirst in a desert, Madam Butterfly stabs herself with a ceremonial dagger; Tosca stabs a would-be rapist, throws herself off the top of Castel Sant’ Angelo in Rome, and her beloved is executed, while Turandot is a sadistic princess with a lot of blood on her hands. Puccini certainly got the most out of female emotional problems, but he didn’t go in for happy endings.
INO’s 20 Shots of Opera, their brilliant compilation of short commissioned operas is available to watch until September 13th on: https://operavision.eu/ en/library/performances/ digital-opera/20-shots-operairish-national-opera