United States Puccini, La bohème: Soloists, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Marco Armiliato (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 4.1.2024. (RP)
Production:
Production and Sets – Franco Zeffirelli
Costumes – Peter J. Hall
Lighting – Gil Wechsler
Revival director – Mirabelle Ordinaire
Chorus master – Donald Palumbo
Cast:
Marcello – Adam Plachetka
Rodolfo – Stephen Costello
Colline – Krzysztof Bączyk
Schaunard – Rodion Pogossov
Benoît / Alcindoro – Donald Maxwell
Mimì – Elena Stikhina
Parpignol – Gregory Warren
Musetta – Kristina Mkhitaryan
Customs Officer – Ned Hanlon
Sergeant – Jonathan Scott
For those who are fussed about the Metropolitan Opera diversifying its repertoire to include more contemporary works, the January schedule should serve as a balm. The Met is presenting three operas, all of them classics: Elijah Moshinsky’s monumental production of Verdi’s Nabucco, Carrie Cracknell’s new, rodeo-style take on Bizet’s Carmen and Franco Zeffirelli’s beloved staging of Puccini’s La bohème. Here’s hoping for a cha-ching at the box office.
Presented more than 500 times since its premiere in 1981, Zeffirelli’s staging of La bohème is the most performed production in Met history. It has always had its fair share of critics who denounced the excesses. Audiences, however, have loved it from the start, as did James Levine, who was the Met’s artistic director at the time and led the first performance. His take on Zeffirelli: ‘I simply adore the man!’ Levine also defended the expense associated with the production, correctly prophesying that it would remain in the Met’s repertoire indefinitely.
It is Zeffirelli’s extravagance that provides the wow factor. The shabby, roof-top garret shared by Rodolfo and Marcello would probably be divided into several rooms in a present-day Parisian boutique hotel. There are few spectacles in the theater as awe-inspiring as the Met’s gold curtain rising on the Café Momus nestled snuggly in the Latin Quarter. Is there anything bleaker than the sight of snow falling at dawn at the Barrière d’Enfer? The glow from the tavern windows seems to serve as a beacon that guides Mimì to Marcello and Musetta.
The first performance of the new year brought some fresh faces to the rotating cast of Bohemians, although not as many as anticipated. Tenor Joseph Calleja withdrew from the run, and Stephen Costello stepped in as Rodolfo, which he had been singing since late October. The new faces in the ever-changing casts were Elena Stikhina in her house debut as Mimì and Kristina Mkhitaryan as Musetta.
Stikhina gave a sensitively sculpted performance both dramatically and vocally. In Act I, she projected a combination of reticence and opportunism that was also evident in her singing. In the opening scene, Stikhina voice was hesitant with the words slightly clipped. When singing of Mimì’s love of spring and her dreams of love, however, her voice blossomed gloriously. The third act showed the soprano at her dramatic best, especially when paired with Adam Plachetka’s Marcello. Returning to the garret, Stikhina exhibited glimmers of the fullness of her voice when reliving the past with Stephen Costello’s Rodolfo, but there was a wanness to the sound that portended her tragic end.
Mkhitaryan has a voice as fiery and attention-grabbing as the character she embodied. All attention was on her Musetta as she flirted outrageously to recapture Marcello’s heart at the Café Momus. Her glamour and theatrics, however, were just secondary to the captivating beauty of her voice. She too was at her best when squaring off with Marcello at the end of Act III.
Plachetka is the anchor of this run. His hearty Marcello may be self-absorbed, but his singing is full and exuberant. The baritone brings out the best in every other singer on stage, including Costello’s Rodolfo. As fine as Costello’s singing was in Act I, apart from a few strained high notes in the opening measures, he was even better when trading barbs with Plachetka at the beginning of the final scene. Two more different singers would be hard to imagine, but they do make a winning team.
Krzysztof Bączyk as Colline has both a profound bass voice and a flare for comedy. His distant, absent-minded philosopher brings a chuckle with every appearance, until the final scene. His change of mood and demeanor made his farewell to his beloved overcoat as moving as what is to come in the final moments of the opera.
Rodion Pogossov was a scene stealer as Schaunard with a voice as commanding as any on stage. Donald Maxwell is a master at portraying old fussbudgets, as he once again proved with his Benoît and Alcindoro.
As has been the case with every performance of the Zeffirelli production that I have seen over the years, the heartiest ovations went to the conductor and the Met’s chorus and orchestra. Marco Armiliato made his Met debut with La bohème in 1998. The years have only deepened his understanding and interpretation of Puccini’s score.
Rick Perdian