La Boheme was performed at the Met and televised in high definition on April 5, 2014. This was the 1256th time Puccini’s masterpiece of the quotidian was staged by the company. Anita Hartig was scheduled to sing Mimi, but she was felled by the flu. Her replacement was Kristine Opolais who had sung the title role in Madama Butterfly the previous evening. This is a feat comparable to pitching and winning complete games at both ends of a doubleheader.
Ms Opolais is a Latvian soprano who made her Met debut last season in La Rondine. She has a rich spinto soprano that is completely controlled and which has power in reserve. Her acting was restrained. This is not surprising given that she had no time to learn the production. She was asked to step in just hours before curtain time. She was not scheduled to sing Mimi at the Met until next season and had not prepared the part. Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 staging dwarf’s the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The bohemians’ garret quarters are at its apex and so far from the audience that they may be in New Jersey. That Opolais could merely get from here to there was remarkable. Regardless, She is a find and seems headed towards a major career in New York. Peter Gelb, the Met’s General Manager, asked a lot of her and she delivered.
Vittorio Grigolo has been singing at the Met since 2010. All of his performances there have been in Boheme or Rigoletto save for a solo recital last month. He has a pleasant lyric tenor that has a few rough edges. He can’t float a pianissimo as needed at the end of act 3; but no tenor since the prime of Giuseppe Di Stefano has been able to manage this feat. His stage presence is pleasing and at age 37 he still looks young enough for Puccini’s starving poet. If not memorable, very good.
Massimo Cavalletti has a large burly baritone that’s good enough for Marcello, the only role he sung at the Met. Susanna Phillips is a young American soprano who has been singing at the Met since 2008. Musetta is a part that can dominate the stage in the second act. Ms Phillips didn’t dominate. When Musetta and Marcello get back together the audience should spontaneously break into applause. This afternoon – silence. The spectacle of Zeffirelli’s 12 ring circus overwhelmed the human drama and comedy that Puccini built into his magical score. Perhaps it was stage director J. Knighten Smit’s fault. Or maybe it was Stefano Ranzani’s routine conducting. But for whatever reason the second act didn’t go off as it should.
The two remaining bohemians got their jobs done, but nobody goes to Boheme to hear the ‘Coat Song’. This was just another good performance of a great opera that can withstand a lot of bad treatment. Today’s show was not bad; it was good. But it’s likely that it will only be remembered for Ms Opolais’s extraordinary effort.
Barbara Willis Sweete’s TV direction allowed the gargantuan scale of the second act to be discerned. Her close-ups in the first and fourth acts disguised the remoteness of the bohemian’s flat. The replay in a few days will be for those who can never get enough of Boheme or for those who have never seen it.
And now for a meteorological note. The bohemians kvetch all through the first act about how cold they are in their little apartment. They even remark how could it is outside. It’s Christmas Eve in Paris. So where do they go in the second act? To an outdoor cafe.
Metropolitan Opera House
April 5, 2014 Matinee
HD Transmission/Simulcast
LA BOHÈME
Giacomo Puccini-Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mimì………………..Kristine Opolais
Rodolfo……………..Vittorio Grigolo
Musetta……………..Susanna Phillips
Marcello…………….Massimo Cavalletti
Schaunard……………Patrick Carfizzi
Colline……………..Oren Gradus
Benoit………………Donald Maxwell
Alcindoro……………Donald Maxwell
Parpignol……………Daniel Clark Smith
Sergeant…………….Jason Hendrix
Officer……………..Joseph Turi
Conductor……………Stefano Ranzani
Production…………..Franco Zeffirelli
Set designer…………Franco Zeffirelli
Costume designer……..Peter J. Hall
Lighting designer…….Gil Wechsler
Stage Director……….J. Knighten Smit
TV………………….Barbara Willis Sweete
I have been following Opalais for well over a year since seeing her in a DVD of Rusalka. She is incredible and her acting is as good as her singing. I love that DVD despite a weird production. I call her” Callas with a much better voice “. She deserves to be and will be the next superstar. Her husband is the new Director of the Boston Symphony.
No one goes to Boheme to hear the “Coat Song?” I do – it moves me to tears every single time. That’s the wonderful thing about opera – forgotten little gems, each one with a handful of devotees counting the minutes until they hear it again.
What a lack luster review of a sparkling performance! I am a former professional musician — I can tell you that this was an excellent performance. These young singers have lots of vitality but are also very polished musicians! Grigolo might have a super-star standing because he is so handsome, but — he is a excellent and highly talented young musician. Opalais performed wonderfully. I was brought to tears!