John Copley’s Royal Opera production of La Bohème is now some 41 years old. Reconstructing the milieu of 1830s Paris in often fastidious detail, it has served some of the greatest Puccini interpreters over time and earned itself the status of a popular classic. The company has decided to replace it, however, with a new staging in 2017, so its current outing, its 26th, is also its last.
Copley has overseen the revival himself, and it still works its familiar magic. If anything, it’s a bit more sombre and refined than on recent occasions. The comic horseplay between the four bohemians is more fine-tuned, less overtly farcical than it once was. Throughout, we are very conscious of the pain beneath the wit.
There are two casts for the long-ish run, and Plácido Domingo, who sang Rodolfo when the production was new, is scheduled to conduct the final performance. On the first night, however, Dan Ettinger was in the pit, and Joseph Calleja and Anna Netrebko played Rodolfo and Mimì. A couple of constricted high notes apart, Calleja is passionate, lyrical, beautifully impulsive. Netrebko sounds glorious and acts with a detailed naturalism that can be startlingly effective. Both make the couple’s almost uncontainable feelings for each other seem very real and entirely credible.
There are strong performances elsewhere, too. Simone del Savio is the attractively dapper Schaunard, Marco Vinco the bluff, warm-hearted Colline. Jennifer Rowley’s Musetta goes a bit over the top in the cafe scene, for which she compensates with some intense singing later on. Lucas Meachem is her handsome-sounding Marcello, more reflective than most. Ettinger can be brisk in places, but his conducting has genuine passion and there’s not a trace of sentimentality anywhere. Very fine.
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