Review: La Boheme at Newcastle Theatre Royal
Mar 4 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal
WOMAN knocks on chap’s door to borrow cup of sugar (actually light for candle), falls in love, gets ill, dies.
That, in a Tweet, is the tale on which Puccini pinned some of the most sublime music ever written.
In opera, and in Phyllida Lloyd’s much revived production for Opera North, story and music blend to stir up a sea of emotions.
Which is why, on Tuesday, you could hear a pin drop in a Geordie audience as a Turk and a Parisienne sang in Italian with a multi-national supporting cast.
Puccini’s opera and the play he based it on were inspired by the Bohemian – which is to say poor and arty – quarter of Paris in the 1830s.
Lloyd’s production, revived by Peter Relton, is updated to the late 1950s and early 60s, with the action switching from arty flat to chic, people-watching restaurant.
As lovers Rodolfo, the poet, and ill-fated Mimi, Bülent Bezdüz and Anne Sophie Duprels were just about perfect, the former with his flowing, beatnik hair and the latter conveying a convincing fragility.
Both sang beautifully, as did the supporting cast, largely comprising Rodolfo’s arty drinking buddies, and in particular Marcin Bronikowski as Marcello.
The tragic tale, seen through a giant picture frame, was driven by an orchestra which, despite having been hit by illness, seemed well on song.
A large contingent of children up from Leeds swelled the crowd scenes, singing in Italian and adding to a spectacle and an experience which left many moist-eyed.
