As the curtains rise to reveal a rundown Parisian loft apartment with Art Deco metal railings and a grimy nod to the aesthetics of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, it’s impossible to mistake the famous opera about to unfold: La Bohème. A tale of love and loss, La Bohème follows Rodolfo, a poet, as he falls for his sickly neighbour, a flower embroiderer that everyone calls Mimi.
The couple’s genuine and ‘serious’ love for one another is contrasted by Rodolfo’s fellow creative Marcello, who has a hot and cold relationship with the inimitable Musetta. Everyone in this quartet, and indeed the whole cast, delivers stellar performances.
Boyd Owen as Rodolfo is delightful, never missing a moment to create genuine engagement with his fellow cast mates or display Rodolfo’s physicality – such as when he dejectedly folds into a bench during Act Three without losing projection or breath control. From the moment Christopher Tonkin irritably fidgets with a cigarette in the opera’s opening scene, he transforms into Marcello and maintains a magnetic performance throughout.
Helena Dix as Musetta commands the stage, particularly in Act Two where her tantalising and comedic entrance has the audience on the edge of their seats. Finally, Elena Xanthoudakis’ performance as Mimi often brings a tear to the eye, even when she’s not singing – the moment she collapses into Rodolfo’s arms at the start of Act Four being one example. Her melancholic vocal tone draws on the heartstrings and her demure, gentle characterisation of Mimi evokes a sense of her body’s doomed frailty.
The leads of La Bohème are able to showcase an individual je ne sais quoi and then some, thanks to Gary Abrahams’ thoughtful and invigorating direction. Abrahams works with the cast in a way that injects interaction, characterisation and movement into every moment while showing no hint of the effort and skill required to balance technical and performance demands.
Very rarely do opera singers weave around the stage with such ease, never breaking character. Abrahams also mines La Bohème – a tragedy – for as much humour as possible. This, and the quick set changes between the acts amps up the energy and pacing of the production. The two-hour-and-20-minute performance feels much shorter.
Given the acoustics and space of the Athenaeum Theatre, the Melbourne Opera Orchestra could do with fewer players across every section. All of the cast fight an uphill battle to be heard when the Orchestra performs above a mezzoforte. For those who attend opera for the musical elements, this imbalance will be frustrating. While the Orchestra sounds fantastic, their swells of passion and angst are to the detriment of the cast.
Read: Opera review: Sweeney Todd, Arts Centre Melbourne
Nevertheless, Abrahams’ production is a feather in Melbourne Opera’s cap and a fantastic interpretation to kick off the company’s Puccini anniversary season.
La Bohème
Athenaeum Theatre
Presented by Melbourne Opera
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Conductor: Raymond Lawrence
Director: Gary Abrahams
Cast: Boyd Owen, Elena Xanthoudakis, Christopher Tonkin, Helena Dix, Stephen Smith, Darcy Carroll, John Bolton-Wood, Asher Reichman
Tickets: from $79
La Bohème will be performed until 24 September 2024.
