Il perche non so

I wrote of Opera Wilmington's delightful Amahl and the Night Visitors in January. I was quite impressed with the performance itself, the organization and its apparent administrative and development skills, and its marketing and public relations efforts. So I was excited to attend Friday night's opening of La Boheme as part of the Lumina Festival of the Arts at UNC Wilmington. I walked away very happy with the singing, and wondering exactly how I would write about other production components.

Jemeesa Yarborogh

The principals were all stellar.  Jemeesa Yarborough stole the show as Mimi.  A very beautiful and full voice, skilled and sensitive singing, and an endearing stage presence made the entire audience fall in love with this young girl who embroiders flowers in her lonely attic room. I see great things in this beautiful young soprano's future--perhaps bigger Puccini roles like Tosca or Manon Lescaut?--and I hope I am able to witness these triumphs.

Jonathan Kaufmann, another highly skilled singer, was Rodolfo. He was a pleasure to hear, with a voice that sounded free and easy throughout and a sound completely appropriate for Rodolfo. He is also a skilled actor and moves easily on stage for a man of size. One did wonder why his voice, which is beautiful, didn't seem to fill the auditorium as the other principals' voices did.

Jonathan Kaufmann

Marcello was sung by Andrew René, a fine young baritone, to quite pleasing effect. His love Musetta was beautifully sung by young Mary Claire Curran. I expect a bright future for both of these singers as well. The Schaunard of Scott Ballentine and the Colline of Carl Samet were quite fine. In particular, Mr. Ballentine brought a lot of life to Schaunard, a role that in some other productions can be quite thankless.

I hope I'm known as a supporter of regional opera and opera performed by young professionals. I wish Opera Wilmington had had the time and resources for more rehearsal with the orchestra and chorus, and perhaps some better decisions with other production components. I do recommend seeing one of the two remaining performances, on July 26 and 28. Once again, singing and story win the day.

Wie eiskalt ist dein Händchen.....

There's a reason La Boheme seems to be the most beloved of all operas. There's a reason singers will do anything to sing these beautiful roles and audiences will pay top dollar to see a good production.  There's also a reason that, although I lived in New York for over 25 years, I refused to ever see Rent, a 1980s retelling of the La Boheme story as a new musical.

The four Bohemians
Photo:  Iko Freese, drama-berlin.de

We hear a lot about "concept" opera, seemingly arbitrary or senseless retelling or reframing of opera stories for novelty or shock value. I don't get it. I don't need to see Marriage of Figaro on a tennis court or a post-apocalyptic Die Walküre under a freeway on-ramp. I certainly don't need to see another literal embodiment of the idea that we are all born naked and alone and die naked and alone. And don't get me started on penguins! I haven't seen many instances where the supposed intent of clarifying social roles and power structures was achieved, but I won't say there have been none. The Glimmerglass Festival's updated Ariadne in Naxos of 2015 is an example that worked. Examples abound where the updating didn't get in the way of the story telling too much, and the costumes (for some reason usually 1960s Jackie Kennedy styles) were fun. In some cases the updating was confusing and distracting, and substantially diminished enjoyment of an otherwise fine performance.

I won't say that is the case in the Komische Oper Berlin production of La Boheme that is currently viewable at operavision.eu (until July 26, 2019), but I was confused. The original story is from mid-19th century, but the opera was first performed in 1896. I never really had a clear picture what era was being portrayed in this production. There were some clever ideas, such as the landlord in Act I never appearing but being impersonated/mocked by the four Bohemians as they prepare to go out into the Paris evening and make mischief. I also liked the idea of never seeing the parade in Act II, but seeing the crowd react to it. And seeing a much earthier crowd than one has seen before--really, it's not a Victorian drawing room comedy! The most distracting addition, however, was the camera setup Marcello had--while it's true this equipment did exist in the 1860s, it is highly unlikely a poor painter living in a shabby attic would have it. And the idea of taking photos for posterity distracted from the action. (Fortunately there were no POOF moments of flash and smoke.) Other distractions include some unfortunate costuming choices--did they really intend Mimi's Act I dress to remind one of a prison uniform with its horizontal stripes?--and inferior subtitles.

Musetta captivates all in Act II

Having gotten all of that out of my system, let me now rave about the singing, which was all quite good. The primary couple of Rodolfo and Mimi were beautifully sung by Jonathan Tetelman and Nadia Mchantaf, both of whom were new to me. I hope I hear more of these appealing young singers in the future! Ms Mchantaf is a highly skilled singing actress, and one didn't care about the distracting production elements when she was singing. If I'm sobbing at the curtain call because Mimi isn't dead after all, I call it a success, and this is what happened. Mr. Telelman is a handsome fellow and also a highly skilled singing actor. He gave Rodolfo a good combination of youthful immaturity and sadness. I was disappointed the director didn't have him touch Mimi when he realizes she has died.

As Marcello, Günther Papendell sounded nervous at first but became much more at ease with the vocal demands of the role as he threw himself into the character. Vera-Lotte Böcker was an appealing Musetta, growing from the impetuous, self absorbed girl of Act II to the more mature woman of Act IV. The Schaunard of Dániel Foki was fun, and the Colline of Philip Meierhöfer was appropriately somber. Conductor Jordan de Souza was quite good. We don't often think about how difficult this score actually is, but Mr. de Souza and the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin never made it sound so.

Truly, my biggest gripes were with production values--Director Barrie Kosky, Set Designer Rufus Didwiszus, and Costume Designer Victoria Behr seemed to be operating on a concept I never really understood.  Lighting Designer Alessandro Carletti had the set so dark, it's been difficult to find pictures online to steal include with this post.

I realize this review sounds negative overall, but I do recommend viewing this production while it is still available. The singing and the story win out over all the distractions.