La Bohème: At Last The Return of Opera Lyra. Bravo!! Bravo!!

Mimi, Rodolfo and Musetta (seated) Photo: Barbara Gray.

As the curtain draws open, there is the painter Marcello, perched on a landing on one side of the stage, struggling almost violently with a huge canvass, as the lights of Paris sparkle through the glass roof of the freezing garret where the drama is about to unfold. . The first notes of Puccini’s music strike a highly dramatic tone and we are immediately swept away by what quickly becomes a most visually exciting and musically sumptuous production of La Bohème. The orchestra literally pushed the passion to its height as the singers, also true actors, exhibited body language that was  just as expressive as their voices. Heightened emotions, starving artists, soaring passion, lovers’ quarrels, wild life in the Latin Quarter (as seen through the eyes of the librettists of course) and a tragic ending. So goes one of the world’s most popular Nineteenth century soap operas set to an unforgettable score that somehow did not convince the critics when it opened in 1896. However, tastes have changed and stage aesthetics are now much more open to multiple influences and that is what we see here.

What was most exciting about this particular production was the fact that the Opera Lyra team of Alexander Shelley (conductor), Joe Bascetta (stage director) , Laurence Ewashko (Chorus Master) along with sets and costumes from the Opéra de Montréal (designed by Olivier Landreville) , and of course all the singers, transformed this event into a near contemporary stage experience. Portions of it looked like popular light opera that sometimes even slipped into American musical theatre! Soprano Laura Whalen’s ( Musetta’s) entrance into the Café Momus in Act II accompanied by a chorus of singing, dancing waiters who lift her like a diva and transport her above the crowd, transformed her number into the segment of a Broadway show.

And in the midst of all the glitter the drama explodes! Marcello (Joshua Hopkins) refuses to even glance at the blond bombshell, while his furious ex-girlfriend explodes into fits of yelling screaming, and all manner of tantrums as she flings her long black boa into the face of all the men, insults her poor escort Alcindoro, leaps on the tables and does everything possible to get Marcello’s attention. Finally as she belts out her famous waltz, Marcello can take no more. He jumps up, hurtles himself towards her crying out “Ma Sirène!” (In Italian of course), climbs on the table, grabs her and the two lock into the most passionate kiss of the evening as the whole restaurant goes wild. As snowflakes, like great gobs of confetti drift down from the sky, there is no mistaking the fact that the scene at Café Momus (Act II) heats up the temperature after Act I where the poor artists have just spent that first act all freezing to death in a most joyous frame of mind. Even then, they still play about, leap around the stage, roll over in glee and even dance as though this were a contemporary musical production, enhanced by those rich operatic voices.

But then the whole evening had an aura of popular melodrama transformed into light opera, fuelled by the singers who moved, who gesticulated, who danced, who became mimics and who gave their characters a heightened and highly charged operatic life. It was just marvellous. Words escape me frankly. It was pure joy.

There was one emotional highlight after the other: the magic moment when Rodolfo (Michael Fabiano) and Mimi meet for the first time. The candles flicker out. In the shadows, we hear Rodolfo’s voice “quivering with sweet passion” as he sings his aria about Mimi’s tiny frozen hands and the superb Joyce El-Khoury responding with the sweetly gentle “They call me Mimi”. The voices complemented each other so perfectly. Fabiano’s powerful dramatic tenor and El-Khoury’s impeccable, perfectly bell-like soprano that rang with such pure, delicate musicality and that changed its quality according to the dynamics of each situation. The audience seemed to be holding its breath! The final scene as she dies, whispering with her last bit of energy, the notes drifted through the highly charged atmosphere of Southam Hall, and came to a breaking point as Rodolfo collapses in grief and sobs loudly over her body. The music, the singing and the acting truly fused into one powerful moment. At that point, Claude Accolas’ lighting design transformed the glass roof into a blood red sky, true to the Romantic tradition that likes to show nature responding to the human tragedy. The frozen nights, the fiery revelry, the heated passion, the rage, the jealousy, the pangs of starvation in that cold garret, all the contrasts of nature that heated up the lives of the characters, were represented most exquisitely by the staging and the forcefulness of the musical production.

Another memorable moment was the quartet in Act III. Marcello and Musetta quarrel outside in the cold as Mimi and Rodolfo declare their love and want to try to stay together. That clash of contrasting emotions expressed by the four voices was one of the musical highlights of the evening.

One did become aware of some problems in Act I however. Baritone McGillivray who sang Schaunard, the musician who always managed to find food and wine for the group because of his special relationship with women, was totally inaudible for several minutes during his first entrance, especially when he was upstage. He could not be heard above the orchestra. Later, when he came downstage facing the audience, his voice became audible but it did appear that McGillivray did not have the vocal power of the other singers. They all managed to rise above the orchestra at all times, even though one could say that the orchestra’s particularly enthusiastic interpretations of the dramatic intensity of the score did play havoc with the voices in Act I. They all seemed to be struggling to rise about the volume of the music. It might not be a bad thing to soften the volume at certain moments.

Laurence Ewashko’s work with the chorus was exemplary. It is also clear that the work of director Joe Bascetta whose animated staging and physical direction of the cast resulted in showing how world class singers can also be excellent actors.  Opera is a total art, as Wagner defined it, and here in the National Art Centre, the whole crew of Opera Lyra has proved that this is really true. Bravo!!

I must also mention the extremely detailed new format of the Opera Lyra programme. The new typography with highlighted names makes it easier to read and evokes the printed documents of the period. An excellent object that will definitely be the first addition to my new Opera Lyra programme collection.

La Bohème continues this week at the NAC on Monday (10), Wednesday (12) and Saturday (15) nights. Do not miss this!

Note the pre-performance chats in English and French at 7pm in the Mezzanine of the NAC

Get tickets directly at the NAC box office or by telephoning Ticketmaster 1-888-991-2727