By Barney Zwartz
OPERA
LA BOHEME ★★★½
Opera Australia
State Theatre, until May 3
Opera Australia opened its Melbourne autumn season on Tuesday with La Boheme, 120 years, three months and three days after the first performance of Puccini's masterpiece, among the most beloved operas since that Turin debut and performed tens of thousands of times around the globe.
Jane Ede (pictured with Adrian Tamburini) stole almost every scene in La Boheme.Credit: Jeff Busby
Perhaps our long familiarity is all the justification director Gale Edwards needs to move the setting from 1830s Paris to 1920s Germany: her argument in the program is that the periods had much in common.
Her production (revived by Andy Morton) is boldly conceived, vivid and often brilliant, but this time the various if minor incoherences struck me more strongly than in its first appearance in 2011.
Lianna Haroutounian (Mimi) and Gianluca Terranova (Rodolfo) sang with such power some thought they were miked.Credit: Jeff Busby
How do the impecunious artists afford an expensive Weimar cabaret complete with fishnet-clad courtesans (the Cafe Momus scene), and why are children running free there or Hitler Youth popping in? The knowledge of what is to come, hinted at in the Nazi-style checkpoint in the third act, lacks menace, and would Marcello and Musetta really disrobe in the snow?
Such reservations aside, this Boheme is very satisfying. Brian Thomson's detailed sets, Julie Lynch's opulent costumes and John Rayment's intelligent lighting are both imaginative and convincing, giving the singers an excellent platform.
The two principals, Lianna Haroutounian (fresh from the Met) as Mimi and Gianluca Terranova as Rodolfo, sang with such power that the man next to me insisted they were miked, but their occasionally overpowering volume was accompanied by marvellous technique and emotional conviction.
Jane Ede (Musetta) nearly stole every scene in which she was involved, while Andrew Jones, Richard Anderson and Shane Lowrencev as Rodolfo's garret flatmates provided sterling support. Mimi's death was particularly moving, not least because no one exaggerated.
Conductor Andrea Molino, employing measured tempi throughout that allowed the music to breathe, was a sensitive accompanist and drew excellent playing from the reliably exemplary Orchestra Victoria.