Assured performance of aptly chosen opera
La Boheme
National Concert Hall
Stock Image
CENTRING on the lives and loves of impoverished 1830s Parisian artists, Puccini's 'La Boheme' could hardly be a more apt choice for cash-strapped Lyric Opera to perform.
Battling against the recession and the loss of its Arts Council grant, the company still manages a presentable production of the opera at the National Concert Hall this week.
Designer John O'Donoghue's confined-garret setting for Acts I and IV serves its purpose and, with a few tweaks, it transforms into the lively Cafe Momus and bleak Toll Gate of the Barriere d'Enfer.
Vivian Coates's direction conveys both comedy and tragedy. There is jovial bonhomie in the male quartet's amusing capers. Seamstress Mimi is nicely coy before the poignant climax of her fatal illness, while frivolous grisette Musetta is a boisterous rip with a kind heart.
Musically, matters are a little constrained, although Fergus Sheil conducts the opera with sensitive feeling and his Lyric Orchestra responds in like manner. Puccini's chamber textures are beautifully realised.
US tenor Ryan MacPherson's poet Rodolfo is positively understated in Acts I and II, when it is announced he is suffering from tonsillitis.
Gallantly struggling through the rest of the evening, his determination is generously acknowledged.
Tenderness
Korean soprano Jee Hyun Lim's Mimi shows a touching tenderness in her consumptive condition and Claudia Boyle's Musetta is brassy and benign as circumstances demand.
More solid assuredness rests with Wyn Pencarreg, John Owen Miley Read and John Molloy as painter, musician and philosopher.
The post WWII-dressed Lyric Chorus give their all to the motley Christmas Eve crowd jostling around the environs of Montmartre.
- PAT O'KELLY
