Classical review: Scottish Opera, La Bohème

Published on Sunday 28 February 2010 21:52

THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW ****

IF YOU know Puccini's La bohme well – and most opera aficionados do – then getting your head around Stewart Laing's revived production for Scottish Opera takes a certain amount of re-programming.

Most changes slip easily into place, such as the relocation to a modern-day arts community in America (though the enormous reappearing cityscape backdrop looks suspiciously like a Glasgow montage), the contemporary garb and the sprawling minimalist apartment.

Other aspects of Laing's adaptation seem more prised into place. The shops, vendors and cafes of Puccini's second act are now objects in a pretentious art gallery – the hat bought for Mimi, for instance, is now a print. Note the absence of surtitles in certain stretches of this scene, which help obscure the literal clashes between the original libretto and Laing's imaginative jibe at commercialised art, with all its references to popularised artists.

As a whole, it works a treat, and imbues the characters with an up-to-date credibility. Celine Byrne's Mimi is delicate, attractive and sung with an emotive power that dominates the production, her loose-living sidekick Musetta friskily portrayed by the coquettish Nadine Livingston. Team work is everything with the four Bohemians, and Avi Klemberg (Rodolfo), Benjamin Bevan (a stalwart Marcello), Christian Sist (Colline) and Julian Hubbard (Schaunard) achieve this with slick interplay, both vocally and dramatically.

It's just a pity that Klemberg, in his Scottish Opera debut, is often drowned out by the opulent surges of the Scottish Opera Orchestra. Why does music director Francesco Corti allow that to happen? On the whole, his conducting is luxurious and sensitive. But the singers need to be heard. Tone the band down a little, and this challenging sideways swipe at Puccini's showstopper is a winner.