James Karas
The Glimmerglass Festival’s chestnut offering
this year is Puccini’s La Bohème. Yes, the one where she
coughs in the first scene, dies in the last and there isn’t a dry eye left in
the house. And rightly so.
Director E. Loren Meeker and designer Kevin
Depinet have set the opera in the Paris of the Belle Époque, the Paris of
Toulouse-Lautrec which was beautiful, colourful, and full of life and joy. This
is the image conveyed successfully in the Café Momus scene in the Latin
Quarter. Depinet makes full and very intelligent use of the small stage of the
Alice Busch Opera Theatre to convey a vivacious party atmosphere without the
paraphernalia one sees in larger houses. More about this later.
Rhys Lloyd Talbot as Colline, Brian Vu as
Schaunard, Raquel González as Mimì, Michael Brandenburg as Rodolfo and Hunter
Enoch as Marcello in The Glimmerglass Festival production of Puccini's "La
bohème." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
How about our Mimi? Soprano Raquel González
breaks our hearts very easily. Sure her candle goes out and she knocks on
Rodolfo’s loft door, but after that she sees what she wants and goes for it. She
drops her keys and makes sure her candle stays out. Rodolfo
sees what he likes too and a couple of arias and a duet later, it is love at
first sight.
González sings sweetly, lovingly,
effortlessly. Her outpouring of emotion from “Mi chiamano Mimi” to “Donde lieta
usci” to the final love duet is delivered with vocal beauty and deep feeling
that goes straight to our heart.
What about the object of her love – Rodolfo?
We are not sure about his character, especially his jealousy, but that is not
our concern here. Tenor Michael Brandenburg does well in his protestations of
love when in the midrange of his voice but he does not always do as well in his
high notes. He is quite ardent in the beginning and in the end but what he does
well emotionally he does not always match vocally.
Hunter Enoch as
Marcello, Vanessa Becerra as Musetta, Brian Vu as Schaunard, Michael
Brandenburg as Rodolfo and Raquel González as Mimì in The Glimmerglass Festival
production of Puccini's "La bohème." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass
Festival
His loft-mate Marcello, baritone Hunter
Enoch, makes a significant vocal impression in the relatively minor role. His
voice resonates with emotion and beauty in a fine performance. Bass-baritone
Rhys Lloyd Talbot as the philosopher Colline and baritone Brian Vu as the
musician Schaunard (both Young Artists) do fine work as Rodolfo’s rowdy but
decent friends.
Soprano Vanessa Becerra (another Young Artist
on her way up) as Musetta showed spunk and gave us a very vivacious flirt.
The loft of the first act is well-designed
with its entrance from a door on the floor. The scene at the gates of Paris is
realistic and appropriate. The relatively short scene in the loft where Mimi
and Rodolfo meet and go to the café in the Latin Quarter usually requires an
interval to change the set. In this production no interval was needed and (the set was changed in a matter of seconds. Bravo for
the entire design including the quick change.
Joseph Colaneri conducted the Glimmerglass
Festival Orchestra and Chorus.
Meeker deserves kudos for his conception and
execution of this familiar work. He stays the middle course without any off the
wall takes and gives us exactly what Puccini intended. A tragic love story,
well sung, well done and well wept.
_____
La
Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini (music) and Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (libretto)
opened on July 8 and will be performed thirteen times until August 27, 2016 at
the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information
(607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org
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