REVIEW POTPOURRI: Giacomo Puccini

by Peter Cates

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini

On Saturday, November 22, a Metropolitan Opera production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme, originally presented live on November 8 at other cinemas and venues worldwide, was replayed at Downtown Waterville’s Maine Film Center.

Since La Boheme is currently my favorite opera and the shelves in my house are bulging with numerous recordings of the complete work and excerpts, I made it my business to see it.

The story line depicts four men – the poet Rodolfo, a painter Marcello, a would-be philosopher Colline and the amiable hanger-on Schaunard – all sharing a garret in 1830s Paris and living in dreadful poverty yet basically cheerful, conniving any financial assistance from those with deep pockets, in particular a wealthy old man Alcindoro whom the perpetually flirtatious Musetta is stringing along and who is the on again/off again girlfriend of Marcello.

Rodolfo falls in love with a neighbor Mimi who makes paper flowers of exquisitely crafted beauty but is in frail health.

The production is based on a 1981 staging by director Franco Zeffirelli (1923-2019) and which originally starred soprano Teresa Stratas and tenor Luciano Pavarotti in a PBS Live from Lincoln Center TV special. Unlike several more recent opera productions which, in order to save money, have 18th and 19th century characters dressed in 21st century clothing and a few chairs and tables on stage, the Zeffirelli one had everything on stage during each of the four acts recreating 1830s Paris – the street crowds, clothes, buildings, shops, vendors etcs., a magnificent recreation of history. (During the two intermissions, the backstage crew was seen shifting the various stages with levers and other tools and displaying well-timed precision in the maneuverings.)

The ensemble performance was very nicely sung and played. Armenian soprano Juliana Grigoryan, at the very young age of 25, displayed a vocal richness and stage presence that was quite mesmerizing, especially in the up close camera angles in the Act 4 when Mimi is on her death bed.

Tenor Freddie De Tommaso was a very good Rodolfo and deployed the high notes more than adequately, although no threat to the recordings of Caruso and Bjoreling, both remaining unsurpassed as Rodolfos and in every other Puccini opera.

Baritone Lucas Meachem’s Marcello, mezzo-soprano Heidi Stober’s Musetta and bass Jongmin Park’s Colline stood out as superb vocals and characterizations, Meachem and Stober almost stealing the show in Act 2’s outdoor cafe scene with their comedic timing and verbal spats – “You toad!” “You witch!” – yet these two do reconcile most eloquently by the end of the opera to an unwaveringly committed relationship.

Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson guest-conducted a very responsive Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The libretto of Boheme was derived from Scenes from a Bohemian Life by Parisian writer Henri Murger (1822-1861).

Upcoming Met Opera Encore presentations:

December 6 – Richard Strauss’s Arabella.
December 20 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

All shows begin at 12:55 p.m. Tickets are $19 for adults, $17 for seniors, military, students, $16 for kiddos 12 and under.

The box office is 207-873-7000.

Recommended recordings of Boheme:

Albanese/Peerce/Toscanini, 1946.
Tebaldi/Prandelli/Erede, 1951.
Callas/Di Stefano/Votto, 1956.
Freni/Gedda/Schippers, 1963.
Freni/Pavarotti/Karajan, 1974.
De Los Angeles/Bjoreling/Beecham, 1956.