Philadelphia Daily News, PA
Oct 26 2006
Here’s the book on the Opera Company production
By TOM DI NARDO
For the Daily News
MIMI DIES, AND everyone cries.
Since its debut in Turin, Italy, 110 years ago, Giacomo Puccini’s "La
Boheme" has gripped audiences emotionally like no other opera.
Everyone can relate to youthful friendships, first love and
heartbreak. And the music stirs our imaginations and our heartstrings
every time.
Using stories from Henri Murger’s four-volume work, "Scenes from the
Bohemian Life," published in the mid-1800s, librettists Luigi Illica
and Giuseppe Giacosa fashioned the tale of four poor friends who
share a shabby Parisian apartment, and the contrasting loves of the
writer and painter.
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is staging this masterpiece, one of
the most performed operas in the repertoire, for the first time since
1998. It opens tonight at the Academy of Music. The Academy of Vocal
Arts did it last year, too.
In 1996, inspired by the opera and by the deaths of some close
friends, Jonathan Larson created the rock musical "Rent," resetting
the moving story from Paris to the AIDS-infected world of New York’s
Alphabet City.
Mimi survives in "Rent," but Larson did not. In a tragedy worthy of a
Puccini opera, he died of an aortic aneurysm immediately after the
show’s first full staging and never saw it become a hit, moving to
Broadway and film.
"La Boheme" also was a smash on Broadway in Baz Luhrmann’s updated,
2002 staging.
As long as there are operatic stages, "La Boheme" will draw audiences
into the lives of these beloved and universal characters, and few
eyes will be dry as the curtain falls.
The story
Act I: Rodolfo the writer and Marcello the painter are bemoaning the
bitter cold in their Parisian apartment, when Colline and Schaunard
finally arrive with supplies.
After Benoit the landlord is tricked and sent away without the rent
he has come to collect, the friends decide to celebrate Christmas Eve
at the Cafe Momus. Rodolfo stays alone to finish his work. Answering
a knock on the door, he meets a young woman named Mimi, whose candle
has gone out.
They sing about their lives in ravishing arias and a duet and swiftly
fall in love. Mimi insists they join the friends at the cafe.
Act II: At the Cafe Momus, Musetta arrives with a rich patron,
Alcindoro, exciting her old flame, Marcello. She flirts and sings her
famous aria, finally sending Alcindoro on a phony errand so she can
reunite with Marcello, and they all leave together. Alcindoro returns
and is presented with the tab.
Act III: Months later, Mimi arrives at the outskirts of Paris to see
Marcello, who consoles her about her breakup with Rodolfo. Mimi hides
when Rodolfo appears. He first tells Marcello that Mimi was
unfaithful but finally admits that he left because she is sick and
may be dying.
He realizes Mimi has heard the truth, and they pledge to reunite
until the spring. Meanwhile, Marcello and Musetta fight in the
background.
Act IV: The four friends clown, dance and pretend to duel in their
apartment until Musetta suddenly breaks in with Mimi, who is very
ill. Musetta leaves to hock her jewelry, and Colline sings an aria to
his beloved coat before leaving to sell it – all for money to pay a
doctor.
Rodolfo and Mimi recall their meeting in a reprise of their first
music. Mimi’s life ebbs away without Rodolfo realizing it,
heightening the opera’s heartwrenching finale.
About this production
The company’s music director, Corrado Rovaris, conducts, with its
general director, Robert Driver, handling the directing chores.
Lighting is by Ruth Hutson, still finding new effects in her sixth
"Boheme." Costumes were designed by the always imaginative Richard
St. Clair.
Opera Company production center director Boyd Ostroff designed and
built the sets for the 1998 staging. They’ve been loaned out to other
companies six times since then. (The company’s sets for "Die
Fledermaus" hold the record – 19 loans.)
The cast
The stunning Armenian soprano Ermonela Jaho (who sang magnificently
at rehearsal) makes her company debut as the consumptive Mimi. Tenor
Roger Honeywell, who had a role in last year’s "Margaret Garner,"
sings his first Rodolfo, and baritone Troy Cook makes his company
debut as the painter Marcello.
Soprano Sari Gruber returns after scoring here in "Don Pasquale" two
seasons ago to sing the flirty Musetta. The other bohemians are
portrayed by company favorite baritone Richard Bernstein (Colline),
who played Figaro in the Mozart classic last season, and
Curtis-trained baritone Alex Tall as Schaunard.
Kevin Glavin, a master of the comic repertoire, plays both the
landlord Benoit and Musetta’s sugar daddy, Alcindoro.