Good summer weather outside may have coincided with this run of La bohème, but Sarah Fahie’s production reminds us that Acts One and Two are set at Christmas Eve, with brief interpolated scenarios before each. That before Act Two is merely a series of seasonal greetings uttered among the crowds gathering at Café Momus, to mask the set change. But preceding Act One commences is a scene at the factory where Mimì the seamstress is employed: some workers hum ‘O come all ye faithful’ and the boss angrily asks what all the mess is about – introducing a Scrooge-like figure to depict the harshness of the world in which she and the students live, as again when the landlord calls later on, asking for rent.
Otherwise, the production is much as one would expect: visually effective, with detail and colour for the Café Momus scene and suitable austerity for the garret of the first and last Acts, and lively choreography executed by the students in particular. Mimì’s own room in the house where they are all crammed is shown to the side of the stage, a workshop for her textiles and complementing the students’ garret as her refuge of creativity.
Although Mimì gradually declines during the course of the opera through consumption, Erin Pritchard’s performance makes a strong impact through her soaring, radiant lines which are imbued with hopefulness and vitality until very near the end, emphasising the tragedy of the character’s life cut short. Jung Soo Yun projects boldly with lyrical confidence as Rodolfo, though on some notes there is a slight tremulousness or drawl. Darwin Prakash stands out for his vivid characterisation of Marcello: he is both musically vigorous and an alert presence on stage, taking charge of the interaction along the students and Mimì, in addition to his commotions with Musetta, sung by Sofia Kirwan-Baez with more levity and tenderness than ferociousness. Edward Jowle is a lively Schaunard, the musician, and Duncan Stenhouse is appropriately solemn as the philosopher Colline, both rounding out well the variety of temperaments among the students.
Although performing a reduced orchestration of the score, this account by Alice Farnham and the Longborough Festival Orchestra lacks nothing in drama or pace, bringing out the playfulness of the light-hearted passages, but also the surging passion and pathos of the more serious episodes, without resort to sentimentality or overwrought musical gestures. With a hearty chorus of professional and younger members the production shows that, although it is one of the most ubiquitous of operas, it doesn’t need any special pleading or effects to pack the deepest and most direct of emotional punches. However familiar any of the audience may be with this work, we still feel profoundly the highs and lows experienced by the endearingly ordinary people of the narrative, and what more do we need to ask of opera than the ability to achieve that?
Curtis Rogers
La bohème
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Cast and production staff:
Rodolfo – Jung Soo Yun; Mimì – Elin Pritchard; Marcello – Darwin Prakash; Musetta – Sofia Kirwan-Baez; Schaunard – Edward Jowle; Colline – Duncan Stenhouse; Benoît / Alcindoro – Matthew Siveter; Parpignol – Tobias Campos Santinaque; A Customs Sergeant – Sam Young
Director – Sarah Fahie; Designer – Sarah Beaton; Lighting Designer – Colin Grenfell; Conductor – Alice Farnham; Longborough Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus; Longborough Festival Orchestra
Longborough Festival, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, 4 August 2024
All photos by Matthew Williams-Ellis.