Ellen Kents’ Production of of La Bohème featuring the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv in their performance at the Theatre Royal was lovely. This renowned romantic opera, telling the heartbreaking story of the consumptive Mimi and her penniless writer lover, was beautifully brought to life on stage.
The production featured all the hallmarks of Kent’s distinctive style – particularly the winter market scene that filled the stage with bubble blowers, stilt-walkers, enormous puppets, and a bustling chorus in Parisian costumes, all creating a festive winter atmosphere. The audience was especially delighted by the appearance of a dog during Muzetta’s entrance, as well as the local young performers in mop caps representing the children of Paris.
The singers all excel, offering traditional and precise versions of the famous arias in this opera, and singings in duets with harmonic bliss. Sopranos’ Elena Dee and Viktoria Melnyk shine in their roles, bringing a real warmth, tenors Davit Sumbadze and Hovhannes Andreasyan offering us full bodied lyricism in response.
Puccini’s opera doesn’t age well, particularly for a Queer audience, but perhaps that’s not the demographic target here and this traditional telling gives us classic damsel in respiratory distress who somehow makes tuberculosis look romantic and ethereal and has a peculiar talent for finding the most financially unstable man in Paris to fall in love with, Mimi is remarkably cheerful for someone whose main hobbies include coughing, embroidering flowers, and slowly dying. She is matched with Rodolfo, a textbook commitment-phobe who writes poetry nobody reads who uses Mimì’s illness as an excuse to break up because he can’t handle emotional intimacy (or afford heating) and is somehow both deeply romantic and tragically selfish. If you can overlook this interpretation of romance, you’ll love it. Singing in italian helps support the sentimental illusion.
While La Bohème ultimately ends in tragedy, the production masterfully balanced the opera’s moments of love, hope, and beauty with its underlying themes of struggle and hardship. Kent presents this classic opera in its traditional form – romantic, straightforward, and in its original Italian language, with surtitles displayed above the stage (though these were perhaps not visible from the back rows of the stalls). Overall the audience lapped this up, enjoying as much a night out at the Opera as the music itself. There were a few very long set changes, the loud snow machine was perhaps not giving us a silent night in Paris and someone really needs to tell the cute muscled photographer in the crowded bar scene how a folding plate camera of that time works, the over enthusiastic ‘snapping’ was most distracting.
The National Orchestra of Moldova, provided vibrant musical accompaniment, enhancing the romantic and nostalgic quality of the performance. My companion, a Puccini enthusiast, was particularly impressed by the music.
The evening concluded on a solemn note with the entire cast performing the Ukrainian National Anthem, which moved the audience to stand in a dignified show of solidarity with the performers’ communities and families affected by the current war.
For those interested in Ellen Kent’s productions, there’s still a chance to see Madam Butterfly (Saturday 22nd) , though tickets are selling quickly based on last night’s full house. These productions regularly visit Brighton and offer accessible, classically faithful performances that often present these works as their composers would have envisioned them.
More details on the Theatre Royals website:
