In the early years since Melbourne Opera’s (MO) inaugural season in 2003, the most popular works of opera fed local audiences. Thankfully, the gradual tinkering with repertoire has deeply enriched the experience as blossoming new directions and an ambitious approach have taken hold.
There are, however, good reasons to revisit the popular repertoire – attracting bums on seats no doubt being one of them – as an exercise not only in proving why they endure but scrutinising them with contemporary sensibilities.
High on a pedestal as one of the world’s most performed works, Puccini’s La Bohème hasn’t been performed by the company since 2012. But, as part of celebrations honouring the 100th anniversary since Puccini’s death, a new production brings a vibrantly and affectingly drawn beauty and pathos to it incorporating a level of detail hard to beat by director Gary Abrahams. And the musical quality is excellent.
Even the Athenaeum Theatre’s restrictive stage area worked to the opera’s advantage as Abrahams capitalises on intimacy and focus while astutely balancing and letting glow the work’s embedded comical elements amongst the unfolding seriousness of the tragedy.
We’re not in 1830s Paris where Puccini’s work is set, but quite possibly high above the Paris end of Melbourne’s Collins Street in the early years of the 20th century, overlooking a picturesque but confused evening cityscape featuring what would have been a newly built Flinders Street Station and, with a little fun on the side, the neon Skipping Girl Sign – though she didn’t turn up until 1936, in Abbotsford.
The electricity and colours of life fill the stage with theatrical flair courtesy of set designers Jacob Battista and Sophie Woodward with many of Harriet Oxley’s mix of costumes jostling for attention under Niklas Pajanti’s complimentary lighting.
Act 1’s bohemian’s garret, which the story returns to in Act 4, is a simply furnished space framed high by delicate metal bracing with attached lanterns looming above an upper mezzanine and overlooking the city from large industrial windows. Its handsome design enables great scope for action and is efficiently adjusted and employed for Act 2’s chaotic street scene and the Cafe Momus.
Act 3’s toll gate setting is reimagined as the graffitied brick walls of an industrial laneway (think Hosier Lane) on which the double doors lead to what seems a dubious late night private club.
Over its four acts, the taste of young, new-found love between the seamstress Mimi (Elena Xanthoudakis) and poet Rodolfo (Boyd Owen) ends in unresolved separation before Mimi’s climactic tear-jerking death.
Alongside them, the more volatile tug-of-war love between Musetta (Helena Dix) and Marcello, (Christopher Tonkin), together the company of friends, capture the spirit of compassion and camaraderie for those in need. La Bohème bursts with humanity.
Puccini renders that landscape with lush melodiousness and fleeting shifts of shock and surprise. The score resonated confidently under the musical direction of Raymond Lawrence at Sunday’s opening and the MO Orchestra played at their best, bringing passion and precision to the fore and seemingly denying the oft-troublesome acoustic of the Athenaeum of any attempt to spoil their sound.
Xanthoudakis is radiant in capturing Mimi’s fragility, dreams and desperation that culminates in the fear of loneliness in death. Just as Mimi’s wish is granted, so too is the audience’s of an artist who delves into wonderfully shaded sensitivities in her vocal work, her Act 3 aria, Donde lieta usci, when Mimi learns the real reason why Rodolfo has been acting irritably towards her, a soul-stirring highlight.
Alongside Xanthoudakis, creating convincingly and tenderly balanced chemistry, Owen’s passion-driven and likeable Rodolfo comes with generously burnished vocal appeal although the uppermost highs showed some insecurity at Sunday’s performance.
Tonkin is a strong presence as the painter Marcello, sporting an innate suavity in both acting and vocals that contribute immensely to realising that Marcello is the glue amongst friends. Stephen Smith’s ebullient Schaunard and Darcy Carroll’s amiable and kindly Colline round out Rodolfo’s bohemian friends with well-refined performances.
And, if anyone got the feeling that this wouldn’t be any ordinary La Bohème, Dix’s searing, libidinous Musetta confirmed it – a delectably voiced bird of prey coming to mind with a deep well of talent enough to quench any thirst. Somewhat cryptic? In this case, it’s a priceless experience, costume and all, not to be ruined by words.
In all, MO have assembled a particularly scintillating cast, together with a wonderful chorus who can effortlessly draw you into their midst, including a bunch of brightly voiced kids who know exactly what to do – be their adorable, playful selves.
Just three more performances remain but this MO La Bohème seems to be aching for life beyond next week. And while there are quibbles over the make-up looking a bit overdone, ‘popular’ has been done smashingly.
La Bohème
Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne
Performance: Sunday 15 September 2024
Season continues to 24 September 2024
Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au
For more information, visit: www.melbourneopera.com for details.
Images: The Cast of La Bohème – photo by Robin J Halls | Elena Xanthoudakis as Mimi and Boyd Owen as Rodolfo – photo by Robin J Halls | Elena Xanthoudakis as Mimi, Boyd Owen as Rodolfo, Christopher Tonkin as Marcello, Stephen Smith as Schaunard, Darcy Carroll as Colline and Helena Dix as Musetta – photo by Robin J Halls
Review: Paul Selar