OPERA REVIEW - La Boheme

Leeds Grand Theatre

By Matt Hutchinson

‘The bohemian’, and all that it has come to be associated with, is one of those ways of life that exists almost solely in art rather than real life. Taking journalist Henry Murger’s accounts of his own struggle with poverty, Giuseppe Giacoso’s and Luigi Illica’s pithy libretto, set against Giacomo Puccini’s rich score, is such an example of abject poverty sitting comfortably alongside a love for life.

Juvenile and carefree, for La Bohème’s group of young innocents (a painter, a poet, a philosopher and a musician) getting by seems more like a game than the daily struggle it perhaps would be. The arrival of the beautiful Mimi is the beginning of the terrible decline of their way of life. Intitial love soon gives way to untamable jealousy.

In this opera of artists – fantastically designed by Anthony Ward – t

he obligatory flowing of blood is replaced by washes of paint. When we meet the four boys in their crumbling flat, vast canvases of bold primary colours stand drying behind them both as brave flares of optimism and omens of the tragic finale.

Yet Peter Relton’s revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s production spends much of its time in a masquerade of comedy, incorporating slapstick, dabbling in drag and romping through large chorus pieces. It’s a brisk production that never outstays its welcome.

Mimi’s eventual (but inevitable) death is the point at which the group must grow up. The cold depravity of adulthood has arrived and the jokes come to an intensely abrupt end.

Nothing will prepare you for such a high-octane belter better than a good glass of something nice and an introductory talk from a charismatic company member. Opera North’s TONAL nights clear some of the Grand Theatre’s best seats in the house for its student audiences, treating them to a free pre-lash at Lounge bar before the show. Whether you’re an serial operaphile or a first-timer, at a meagre £10 per ticket there is no better way to see one of the nation’s best opera companies.

Email tonal@operanorth.co.uk or call Stefanie Davis on 0113 223 3524 to get your tickets.