How best to demonstrate the natural fit, idiotically and spitefully levered apart by the last government, between the company and its owner-occupier home, the Coliseum? Answer: with a tried and tested production of a big and hugely loved opera, brilliantly translated into English, that is visually delightful and believable, warmly sung and whizzily conducted.
Puccini's La Bohème, as directed by the late Jonathan Miller, opens ENO's short season of six full-scale productions and two more economic offerings; 25 years since it first delighted London audiences it is as rewarding as ever. Staged in 1930s Paris, it is a flawless piece of music theatre, acted and sung by an exemplary company. Each character, prominent or not, lives a real life on stage, and all pull together with star quality.
Charles Rice as Marcello and Joshua Blue as Rodolfo. Photo: Lloyd Winters
ENO's talent for spotting and raising new singers is exemplified by the casting as Mimì of Nadine Benjamin, a former Harewood artist in the company's young singers' scheme, a spirited Musetta in the last outing of this Bohème, and now top of the bill, alongside US tenor Joshua Blue, singing Rodolfo.
The two hard-up neighbours in a crowded Paris house meet and fall in love when the lights go out. With time, they tire of each other, then come to understand, too late, that they are indeed meant to be together. Rodolfo's arty mates are along for the ride, and so are the bustling streets of Paris.
Among those friends are painter Marcello, most wonderfully sung and affectionately acted by Charles Rice. Marcello in an on-off relationship with flighty Musetta, this time sung by South African soprano Vuvu Mpofu.
Nadine Benjamin is Mimì and Charles Rice as Marcello. Photo: Lloyd Winters
Also sharing the garret is thoughtful Colline, whose selfless farewell to an overcoat, when money is at its tightest, is movingly and beautifully sung by bass-baritone Dingle Yandell, making his ENO debut. Yandell made a big impression earlier this year in Glyndebourne's Carmen, and is an artist to catch whenever you can.
'Think of the future. Everything is uncertain…' points out the feast-and-famine musician Schaunard, meaningfully sung by Harewood artist Patrick Alexander Keefe. How true for this company, and for the big and diverse London audiences that love it.
Italian-born Cielia Cafiero conducts the lively chorus and orchestra of English National Opera, who sang and played with irrepressible exuberance. Cafiero is one of 10 conductors at ENO this season, seven of them women.
Vuvu Mpofu as Musetta. Photo: Lloyd Winters
Let's make the most of ENO while they are in our neighbourhood. Still to come a new production of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, a revival of Miller's gangster Rigoletto, moving Verdi's opera to New York, a new production of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, the return of Mike Leigh's rumbustious The Pirates of Penzance, and a Mozart masterpiece, The Marriage of Figaro.
When your best friends move away, you don't lose touch, and when they pop back you are more pleased than ever to see them. But you always hope they might move back….
La Bohème is sung in English with English surtitles. Further performances are on 28 Sept; 3, 5, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19 Oct. Click here to book
| What | La Bohème, English National Opera review |
| Where | English National Opera, London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Embankment (underground) |
| When |
26 Sep 24 – 19 Oct 24, Nine performances, start times vary. Run time 2hr 15 min, including one interval |
| Price | £10-£195 |
| Website | Click here for details and booking |