Atlanta Opera is following last fall’s dark and violent Rigoletto with a dream production of Puccini’s La Boheme at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre through January 28.
This is a vividly staged, rapturously sung and beautifully conducted account of this most popular and romantic of operas. It’s another must-see for opera fans — or really anyone with a heart. It doesn’t get much better than this.
How appropriate, too, that Atlanta Opera would offer a top-tier production following its recent designation as a Top 10 American opera company.
The 1896 La Boheme centers on four young artists living and loving in 19th century Paris. One particular strength of this production is that the singers are actually young, acting with a nimble authenticity that’s a joy to behold. (I thought, as I watched them, that they could be the cast of Rent, the rock opera based on La Boheme.)
Vocally, the singers are also uniformly excellent. Chinese tenor Long Long brings a ringing timbre to the role of the poet Rodolfo. His love interest, Mimi, is played with a rich, luscious voice by Nicaraguan-American soprano Gabriella Reyes. Both display a gift for caressing lyricism in their big arias.
Long is a tenor who likes to hold onto a high C, no doubt much to an opera-lover’s delight. He joins Reyes in the unwritten but often interpolated high C at the end of Act I.
Madison Leonard, with a sparkling soprano, is vivacious and comically adept as the flirtatious Musetta. Thomas Glass, substituting for Zachary Nelson, played the role of the painter Marcello on opening night with a robust baritone.
Jongwon Han, also a baritone, is a warm-voiced Schaunard, the musician. Christian Simmons plays the philosopher Colline with a deep, resonant bass.
The comic roles of Benoit and Alcindoro are acted with verve by Philip Cokorinos.
The staging by Tomer Zvulun and Gregory Luis Boyle is meticulous, offering fresh and unexpected details in an opera that has been produced so many thousands of times. They’ve filled the opera’s comic scenes with an abundance of pleasing high jinks.
Aided by Erhard Rom’s fine sets and Martin Pakledinaz’ evocative costumes, Zvulun and Boyle give us a Boheme of stark contrasts. The Act II scene at the popular café Momus teems with ebullient humanity, even including some jugglers and stilt walkers in the background — and why not? Act III, however, is mostly barren and dark, a reflection of the moody narrative at this point.
The marvel of this staging lies in the nuances. To take one small example, a gesture Rodolfo makes toward his new love interest Mimi in Act I is repeated in Act III when the two reunite. The old, stodgy stand-and-sing stagings of the operatic past now seem, thankfully, a distant memory.
Conductor Jonathan Brandani, making his Atlanta Opera debut, is superb. He beautifully balances urgency and lyricism. His tempos are generally brisk in the comic scenes, but he brings a more expansive sensitivity and heartfelt phrasing to the opera’s lyrical episodes.
Brandani draws polished playing from the Atlanta Opera Orchestra. The Atlanta Opera Chorus (prepared by Rolando Salazar) and Children’s Chorus are energetic and hearty.
Even minor characters in this production are impressive. Kameron Lopreore offers a strong tenor as the toy seller Parpignol, and Hensley Peters pipes up in peppy fashion as a child who wants a toy.
When Musetta makes her first entrance, she carries a small dog in the manner of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. We learn from the credits that the cute pup is played by “Sophia.” In this staging where everything seems well-nigh perfect, even Sophia is everything a dog should be.
::
Paul Hyde, a longtime arts journalist, teaches English at a college in South Carolina. He writes regularly for Classical Voice North America, The Greenville Journal and The South Carolina Daily Gazette.
