Two important announcements immediately followed today’s telecast of Puccini’s glorification of the quotidian. The first was that this show surpassed Graham’s number in frequency of performance. The second, and equally significant, is that from next season forward every show at the Met will be a staging of La Bohème – Puccini’s, not Leoncavallo’s. Casts may change, but the opera will remain a constant. When asked to comment on the change, Met General Manager Peter Gelb remarked that there’s always someone in the audience who is seeing La Bohème for the first time. This observation is also sneaking up on Graham’s number.
Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 production still delivers the ambience that lets Puccini’s remarkable score dazzle even the most jaded opera goer. I’ve been attending La Bohème for 70 years, and it still works. The characters are all ordinary people mispending their youth. They’ll never amount to much, but Puccini’s magic makes us care about them. After their youth is gone, they’ll return home to their native villages and teach school. Rodolfo will mostly forget Mimì and father a brood of children who will waste their young years.
The two most important characters are, of course, Mimì and Rodolfo. They were played and sung with feeling and sensitivity by Juliana Grigoryan and Freddie De Tommaso. Ms Grigoryan is a beautiful woman who looks too healthy for the consumptive seamstress. She’s very young and her characterization will doubtless add depth as she gains more experience – an artist on the ascent.
British tenor De Tomasso has a bright voice that is well suited for Puccini’s starving playwright. The only problem is that he has the tenor’s occupational body habitus – he’s in danger of assuming the shape of a manatee. The rest of the Bohemians were likewise overupholstered. We can knock off 30 pounds per performer as an opera allowance.
The cast was all very good. Particularly fine was Lucas Meachem as Marcello. It’s not a part that usually gets a lot of attention, but he gave the painter a simple gravitas and made a real person out of what can be a stock character.
Maestra Keri-Lynn Wilson led the Met’s orchestra to a fine realization of Puccini’s unique sound. The orchestra could play the score to perfection via Zoom if needed. The chorus and cast of thousands brought off Puccini’s Helzapopin Act 2 with panache.
I don’t need to say much more. La Bohème speaks for itself and defeats elitist critics who find it too easy to assimilate. The opera is a wonder that only a great master could conjure. If you like the opera, and you must be deranged or terminally snobbish not to, catch the replay if you missed today’s live broadcast. You might want to see the replay even if you were at today’s performance. Viva Puccini!
La Bohème
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mimì……….Juliana Grigoryan
Rodolfo……….Freddie De Tommaso
Musetta……….Heidi Stober
Marcello……….Lucas Meachem
Schaunard……….Sean Michael Plumb
Colline……….Jongmin Park
Benoit/Alcindoro……….Donald Maxwell
Parpignol……….Gregory Warren
Sergeant……….Jonathan Scott
Officer……….Ned Hanlon
Conductor……….Keri-Lynn Wilson
Video Director……….Gary Halvorson
La Bohème is the first opera I ever listened to, and I have seen it many times. I love it and especially enjoy the Zeffirelli production.
I thought today’s telecast was remarkable: Miss Grigoryan was an especially affecting Mimì; it touched me to see (via the close-ups) real tears on her cheeks in Acts III and IV. (Since she’s slender and lovely and young, I thought she was a more realistic-seeming consumptive seamstress than we usually get!) I enjoyed Mr. De Tommaso’s acting; somehow his voice doesn’t strike me as quite beautiful enough, for Rodolfo. I loved to hear, though, his voice went “down” when singing “Amor–amor–amor!” at the end of Act I instead of staying “high” (and competing with the soprano). You don’t often hear a tenor who’ll do that (though isn’t it how it was originally written?).
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better ensemble cast, in Bohème. I thought Sean Michael Plumb as Schaunard was a real example of ‘luxury casting,’ and ditto for Jongmin Park as Colline: you usually have to broaden your standards a bit for those parts, maybe especially for Schaunard. Mr. Plumb was a real asset, I thought, in the Bohemians’ ensembles, including with his acting and amusing ‘business’.
I agree with your assessment of Lucas Meachem as Marcello; his scene with Mimì in Act III was terrific, as was the Act IV duet with Rodolfo. I liked Heidi Stober as Musetta and the way she tenderly nursed her dying friend at the end of the opera.
I’ve certainly never heard an audience applaud Mimì’s dying words before–that almost threw off the last little bit of Act IV; you could see some communication between Marcello and the conductor (they paused for about two beats).
I expect great things of Miss Grigoryan.
I also enjoyed having a real, seasoned pro like Matthew Polenzani as the host; I liked the questions he asked. His intimacy with this opera was a plus; it helped make his questions more pointed and less generic.
I appreciate what you say about this opera’s greatness, which becomes more and more apparent on frequent encounters. I really loved seeing such an excellent performance of it today.
(Happily, my daughter the accountant was able to give me some idea of what the reference to Graham’s number signified!!)