At Opera Holland Park, it is the City of London Sinfonia under George Jackson making a reduced score sound like the whole package for a new staging of La Bohème by Natascha Metherell. She sets the opera not in snowy, early to mid 19th-century Paris, as the composer intended, but on a sun-drenched 1950s Italian film set.
Shirtsleeves and braces, not mufflers, are the rig of the day. And the four creative mates whose lives Mimì enters are, topically, grinding a living in the film industry, writing, composing, painting.
Adam Gilbert (Rodolfo), Barnaby Rea (Colline) and Ross Ramgobin (Marcello), workmates on set in La Bohème. Photo: Craig Fuller
Mimì, the embroiderer of flowers, is now Mimì from wardrobe, dressing the cast of a period film in stovepipe hats and leg-of-mutton sleeves. Entertaining as this all is visually, it makes no sense. And it is never clear, even at the very end, what is backstage reality and what is on-stage artifice.
The knockabout antics of the creative friends are swamped by other business, as characters and crew swarm around the stage. There is no contrast between their cramped quarters and the expansive throng of the Café Momus on Christmas Eve (here the works canteen).
Fortunately, out of this muddle shine some lovely voices. Soprano Katie Bird is a characterful Mimì, and no shrinking violet. (Anna Picard's fascinating programme note explains why a young woman like her was feared by society.) With her rising, finely textured voice she quickly outdoes and outgrows plodding poet Rodolfo, sung as if with a heavy heart by tenor Adam Gilbert.
Katie Bird (Mimì) and Adam Gilbert (Rodolfo). Photo: Craig Fuller
Soprano Elizabeth Karani as imperious Musetta stalks the set in her palazzo pants and Bardot top, leaving vanquished men in her path, the latest conquest film director Alcindoro, sung with resignation by Henry Grant Kerswell.
Baritone Ross Ramgobin as Musetta's real, on-off love Marcello, bass Barnaby Rae and baritone Harry Thatcher are Rodolfo's gang, but their quickfire exchanges are largely lost. Why? Because a once-temporary runway round the orchestra, a Covid measure for extra spacing, is still in place, pushing singers far upstage and excluding the audience. Honestly, I'll come and help take it down myself, but please, please, will OHP thank it for its good service and send it packing?
Elizabeth Karani as Musetta. Photo: Craig Fuller
Tellingly, the most touching scene is, like that cymbal strike, skilfully economical. At last the stage is virtually stripped of extraneous characters, and Ramgobin's likeable Marcello is the mate who listens first to Mimì's side of the story, after the break-up, then Rodolfo's. We've all been there, or overheard others in that place: 'He's like…', 'She's like…'. It's a scene that is often awkwardly stranded. Here it works perfectly. Less is more.
La Bohème is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Further performances are on Friday 21, Sunday 23, Tuesday 25, Thursday 27, Saturday 29 July; Tuesday 1, Thursday 3, Saturday 5 August. Click here for booking and Monday Rush tickets
| What | La Bohème, Opera Holland Park review |
| Where | Opera Holland Park, Stable Yard, Holland Park, London , W8 6LU | MAP |
| Nearest tube | High Street Kensington (underground) |
| When |
19 Jul 23 – 05 Aug 23, Seven evening performances remaining, with one interval. One at 2pm, Sun 23 July |
| Price | £Returns only |
| Website | Click here for details and booking |