March 2, 2006
This was a gorgeous and colourful production in the classic style. It was possibly the best staging of La Bohème that I’ve seen, with elegant and effective sets, pretty and appropriate costumes, and excellent acting. The attention to detail in the choreography and characterisation was remarkable, especially in the crowd scenes.
The beauty of La Bohème is that it’s a picture of student/artistic life that is exquisitely contemporary. Coaxing landlords out of their rent, flirting in bars, getting a gig and going out to spend all the money from it in celebration, trying to get people into bed and falling in and out of love: it’s all stuff that we can identify with today. So often opera companies fail to exploit this to the full, but Ellen Kent International (actually the Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa in collaboration with the Chisinau National Opera) have brought out all the humanity of the piece by paying proper attention to the acting throughout. There were no awkward gaps between arias – every note, whether sung or instrumental, was given a correlative meaning (a glance, a stillness) by the performers. The horseplay between the four artist friends in their room, which is so often stilted and embarrassing, was here beautifully timed and convincing, and this made the tragedy, when it came, much more hard-hitting – you’d been led to care about the characters by a belief in the friendship.
Irina Vinogravdova (Mimi) was unquestionably the star, with a pure sweet voice and a great deal of magnetism in her timidity. Petru Racovita as a burly and appealing Marcello provided hilarious but moving comedy with Elena Gherman (who created Musetta as a gloriously shameless tart). The only problem was that it seemed that Ruslan Zinevych (Rodolfo) was suffering from throat problems: he sang manfully, and it was all right, but the part needed a voice in full fitness. His skill as an actor made his performance deeply affecting, however, and I was only sorry not to have seen him in the full flush of health.
It’s a romantic and beautiful show and highly recommended. I would assume that Rigoletto (tonight) will be similarly worth seeing.
The beauty of La Bohème is that it’s a picture of student/artistic life that is exquisitely contemporary. Coaxing landlords out of their rent, flirting in bars, getting a gig and going out to spend all the money from it in celebration, trying to get people into bed and falling in and out of love: it’s all stuff that we can identify with today. So often opera companies fail to exploit this to the full, but Ellen Kent International (actually the Ukrainian National Opera of Odessa in collaboration with the Chisinau National Opera) have brought out all the humanity of the piece by paying proper attention to the acting throughout. There were no awkward gaps between arias – every note, whether sung or instrumental, was given a correlative meaning (a glance, a stillness) by the performers. The horseplay between the four artist friends in their room, which is so often stilted and embarrassing, was here beautifully timed and convincing, and this made the tragedy, when it came, much more hard-hitting – you’d been led to care about the characters by a belief in the friendship.
Irina Vinogravdova (Mimi) was unquestionably the star, with a pure sweet voice and a great deal of magnetism in her timidity. Petru Racovita as a burly and appealing Marcello provided hilarious but moving comedy with Elena Gherman (who created Musetta as a gloriously shameless tart). The only problem was that it seemed that Ruslan Zinevych (Rodolfo) was suffering from throat problems: he sang manfully, and it was all right, but the part needed a voice in full fitness. His skill as an actor made his performance deeply affecting, however, and I was only sorry not to have seen him in the full flush of health.
It’s a romantic and beautiful show and highly recommended. I would assume that Rigoletto (tonight) will be similarly worth seeing.
