Opera review: Paisley Opera: La bohème, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley
Opera review: Paisley Opera: La bohème, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley ***
Right now, Paisley Opera is going it alone with an ingenious production – by director Fiona Williams – of Puccini’s La bohème. However, the frivolous lifestyle portrayed here is far removed from the Latin Quarter of 19th-century Paris, transported instead to the scarred reality of a Ferguslie Park flat, complete with reheated curries and reckless students – the four male protagonists – whose carefree antics occupy a middle ground between The Young Ones and Men Behaving Badly.
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Hide AdSo lines such as “Oh, sod it, what’s happened to the WiFi” and the odd floss dance are in no way out of place, especially as the venue itself – the university – becomes a living organism in a production that asks the audience to get off their seats and follow the action. We become part of the central street scene in the main foyer, a bustling Christmas bazaar with more traders than the town’s High Street, pertinently visible through the windows.
The athletic cast buys fully into the concept, the hired-in professionals – among them Rachel Brimley glowing as good-time girl Musetta, William Branston strong as the forcibly maturing Rodolfo, Monica Toll enjoying emotive heights as the consumptive Mimi – bolstered by the company’s adult and children’s choruses.
There are lustrous moments from the cut-down orchestra under Alistair Digges’ precise motivation, though a few bumpy ones as well. They simply don’t have the weight in numbers to deliver the heaving tragedy of the final bars. - Ken Walton