Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Dan Ettinger
This broadcast marked the final outing for John Copley's 1974 production of La bohème, something of a landmark, for there are very few productions around these days that are that venerable. As you might expect from something of that period, the production is completely traditional, in full period decor and costume, with no hint of Eurotrash direction or regietheater to upset the apple-cart. It wasn't the bad, turgid sort of traditional either, even if half the cast had a bit of a tendency to ham things up. There was a lot of over-acting (mostly from extras) going on in Act 2. The biggest drawback was the scene-changes - they may have been faster now than they would have been in '74, thanks to new machinery, but we still ended up with two intervals and a five-minute pause, extending the evening well beyond the usual running time for this otherwise relatively compact opera.
Most of the cast was new to me, as, indeed, was the conductor, Dan Ettinger. The orchestra did play very well, providing a strong, expressive presence. However, there was, particularly in the outside acts, a faint sense of disconnection between pit and stage, as if conductor and singers hadn't completely agreed on the tempo, which is highly unlikely considering this was the last night of the run. Nevertheless, time and again there were small disagreements over exactly how expansive a phrase should or should not be. Yet it was something that never happened with the chorus, and it was never so severe as to actually call it an error, just some slightly disconcerting moments of friction.
Of the Bohemians themselves, Simone del Savio (Schaunard) was a shade under-powered at times, but lively, while Marco Vinco's Colline was suitably sonorous, and touching in his farewell to his coat in the last act. Lucas Meachem was an expansive, warm-sounding Marcello, and well matched with Jennifer Rowley's bubbly, kittenish Musetta. Joseph Calleja is perhaps the ideal Rodolfo at the moment; the radiance of his timbre, the ease of projection, the control of colour and volume and the clarity of his Italian all combine to make him both convincing and compelling in this iconic tenor role.
Anna Netrebko, on the other hand, has never struck me as a particularly ideal interpreter of Puccini's "little women". Tosca, yes, probably, but the others, the victims? Not really her temperament. She sang beautifully, that was certainly not an issue, but the vulnerability wasn't quite there. Also, surely they could have tweaked her make-up a little to make her look a bit more physically frail in the third and fourth acts? Still, there were some lovely moments, the chemistry with Calleja was more than adequate for the occasion, and it was a fine send-off for this revered production.
[Next : 15th June]
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