Performer: James Conlon

Francisco Negrín gives his singers little help in a dark, boxy new staging, put together at frantic, last minute speed. 

Barrie Kosky's stark, spare La bohème gave it a rare spark of humanity focused on Marina Costa-Jackson's haunting Mimì, whose existence became the central focus even when she wasn't singing.

As Zaharia inhabited her role, the opera became almost entirely about her, to the extent that one wanted to watch her every movement and hear her every syllable.

Any parallels between Rome in the first century under Emperor Titus and the United States two millennia later under Emperor Trump were lost in a Tinseltown graphic novel sweep.

Susan Graham had all the fun every mezzo-soprano witch, who can sing the role and disguise herself – when necessary – to look the part, deserves. 

With a potent cast and excellent dancing, this is a sophisticated take on Gluck's opera.