It’s unclear when, if ever, Los Angeles Opera will mothball film director Herbert Ross’ production of “La Bohème.” It debuted in 1993 and is being presented by the company for the seventh time at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. But then, if subscribers can put up with seeing it every three or four seasons, there doesn’t seem much of a reason to put it away.
Sunday afternoon’s performance was packed, at any rate, which was probably more a testament to the enduring popularity of “Bohème” than anything else, but Ross’ production certainly doesn’t get in the way. It is picturesque and atmospheric and pretty.
Pretty straightforward, too. You get the bohemians’ garret in Act 1, up a flight, suitably dingy, with Parisian roofs and a moonlit night sky in view. At the Café Momus in Act 2, the scene is riotous, with boisterous extras enough to make Franco Zefferelli proud (and the viewer dizzy). Act 3, set outside a tavern on the outskirts of Paris, looks more like a nice neighborhood in Irvine, perhaps, but with its mood lighting and falling snow it is hard to resist.
We’re back at the garret for Act 4, but here director Peter Kazaras takes the inaction outdoors, to a little patio the bohemians happen to have, a floor below the garret. A patio, you say? Yes, and you’d think that Rodolfo and his friends would at least take Mimì indoors to die, but the incongruity matters little in the long run. The fresh air doesn’t save her and everyone still gets choked up about it.
You can plug dozens and dozens of singers into these parts. “La Bohème” is done so often and everywhere that young singers the world over learn a part or two in the opera and travel from here to Topeka performing them. It’s a living. The flip side to the ubiquity of “Bohème,” though, is that it’s usually solidly performed, as indeed it was here.
Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, recently seen as Violetta in the company’s “Traviata” and in the title role of “Thaïs,” sang the part of Mimì expressively, with an opulent high range. As I noted about her performances in those other roles, Machaidze also seems to chop up her phrases into little bits and lunges at notes randomly. Since Mimì is consumptive, maybe it makes sense.
Next to her, though, Rodolfo, sung by Guatemalan tenor Mario Chang (subbing for an indisposed Abdellah Lasri), was all lyrical long lines, smoothly connective and sweetly toned. Amanda Woodbury provided a purely voiced Musetta, lively and naughty in manner. Giorgio Caoduro boomed and sometimes wobbled as her Marcello. Their scene together in Act 2 was altogether too hammy, but the audience loved it.
Nicholas Brownlee and Kihun Yoon were capably rambunctious as Colline and Schaunard. The L.A. Opera Chorus and the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus handled their duties without incident.
A great deal of the credit for the success of this performance (and it was a success) has to go to conductor Speranza Scappucci, making her debut with the company in this production. The young Italian, a Juilliard graduate and already well traveled in Europe, led the score with a crisp and incisive authority. Her reading was impressive not only for its propulsion, but also for the colors she brushed off and made clear in Puccini’s rich orchestration.
By the way, Gustavo Dudamel will make his L.A. Opera debut conducting the last two performances in the run of this “Bohème” (June 10 and 12). Let’s not everyone give him all the credit for how great the orchestra sounds then. Scappucci already has it there.
Contact the writer: 714-796 6811 or tmangan@ocregister.com
