Those with more morose dispositions, suffering under the hail of saccharine bullets of Father Christmas, cheerful elves and gravity-defying reindeer, may celebrate the adoption of La bohème as a ‘Christmas opera’. No happy ending here: death, eternal separation and the untimely absence of a coat provide the itinerary for Boxing Day. Yet casting aside one’s cloak of cynicism and misanthropy, there is a heart-warming glint to the blade that is plunged into us as Rodolfo keens out in dreadful anguish. Everyone is there: in this time of two loved ones’ desperation, feuds, humour and personal need are put aside. Ties strengthen and water thickens to blood. Richard Jones’ production, a favourite at Covent Garden, still has the power to wrench a tear or two from a jaded soul at its mournful climax, when so lovingly directed and performed as in this latest iteration under revival director Ben Mills.
Some significant names are involved. Speranza Scappucci, taking up the role of Principal Guest Conductor next year, conducted with infectious enthusiasm, brisk and rambunctious in pacing, but lingering over moments where the drama requires it at all the right points. The strings had the right swerve and, a couple of slightly uneven brass moments early on, it was a commendable performance in a house that has excelled in Puccini in recent years. A Royal Opera debut from Pene Pati had generated some interest. He has sung Rodolfo before and is a natural creature of the stage, warm and passionate, with an ability to communicate emotion effortlessly. Vocally the picture was a little more mixed. His sense of text was explicitly clear – playing into his theatrical ability – and his diction was precise. A strong, velvety middle register was on constant display, but there was something, on first night at least, which sounded uncomfortable at the top of the voice: a constricted slightly plasticky sound, reached with a gear change that sounded unwieldy.
Olga Kulchynska gave a thoughtful Mimì: demure, but clearly a dreamer. Integrated registers and a strong, soaring higher register characterised a strong vocal performance, and in her depiction of blossoming love with Pati we had a pairing in whose romance we felt invested. Kulchynska’s paler soprano made a fine contrast to Amina Edris’s firecracker of a Musetta, whose Act 2 performance lingered in the memory; stomping across tables, removing undergarments, taunting and craving Marcello in equal measure. Edris’ voice is not substantial, but she projected well and showed a lovely coppery tinge to the top which was well suited to the character.
Mikhail Timoshenko gave us a Marcello who seemed at times to have the bearing of a fallen monarch; he has a commanding stage presence and an admirably forceful baritone. Bass Aleksei Kulagin gave a moving “Vecchia zimarra”, warmly sung and limpidly phrased. William Spaulding’s Royal Opera Chorus sounded as excellent as we have come to expect. A pleasing revival as a pre-Christmas treat.
