“La Boheme” reviewed by Jacob Davis

*****  If the particular contains the universal, it makes sense that Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème would remain one of the most popular operas in the world over a hundred years after its premiere. Based on a series of short stories published forty years earlier, La bohème is an opera of the verismo genre, those that depict the lives of the poor with, by late nineteenth-century standards, unusual grittiness. In a new-to-Chicago production now playing at the Lyric Opera, director Melanie Bacaling presents a vision of La bohème that is rooted in the time of the opera’s debut (although not that of its source material), the Belle Époche, an era of massive inequalities, contradictory social attitudes, and ambivalence about how peoples’ lifestyles and biological rhythms had been upended by the rapid adaptation of new technology. In doing so she finds a fresh way into the heart of an opera about lonely characters’ craving for connection.
La bohème’s plot was re-popularized by having inspired Jonathan Larson’s Rent, but to summarize, Rodolfo (tenor Pene Pati), a hopeful young poet, and his friend, Marcello (baritone Will Liverman), a painter, live in crushing poverty in Paris’s artsy Latin Quarter. They’re freezing on Christmas Eve but get an unexpected reprieve when a friend scores a bonanza, and while Marcello goes ahead to a trendy cafe, Rodolfo lingers behind and their neighbor, Mimi (soprano Ailyn Pérez), introduces herself. They’re both somewhat timid people who express themselves through art they had mostly accepted nobody else would ever appreciate, but find kindred spirits in each other and quickly develop a romantic spark. At the cafe, Marcello encounters his ex, Musetta (soprano Gabrielle Reyes), who has moved up in the world by getting a richer boyfriend, but still has feelings for Marcello. Rodolfo warns Mimi that he isn’t open to a relationship in which he has to share his girlfriend with men who have more money, but Mimi’s consumption makes a long-term partnership unlikely regardless. Within a few months, everyone’s feelings have been hurt, their poverty is only mildly assuaged, and Mimi’s time is nearly up.
Mimi and Rodolfo’s first scene together is central to the opera’s emotional power, and I found this production delivered brilliantly. Pérez’s rendition of Mimi’s famous aria Sì, mi chiamano Mimì is a heartwarming depiction of a woman becoming more confident in herself as she describes the things she takes pride in. As her voice gets stronger with each high note we see Rodolfo’s admiration for her grow. I was also moved by Pati’s performance and realized how much courage it took for Rodolfo to share his poems with a stranger. The bolder couple, Musetta and Marcelo, are also a lot of fun, with Reyes’s Musetta being a domineering figure who makes a scene in a café because she has the newfound power to get away with it and Liverman’s Marcello eagerly jumping at each of her provocations. Peixin Chen and Ian Rucker as Colline and Schaunard, Marcello and Rodolfo’s friends, are great fun as well, romping through the streets and apartment building common areas with youthful exuberance, but also displaying selfless devotion, even to a fault.
Set designer Gerard Howland makes a beautiful spectacle for the Christmas Eve Latin Quarter. With rich costumes designed by Jeannique Prospere and the late Peter J. Hall and wigs and makeup by John Metzner, dazzling lighting designed by Duane Schuler, and the participation of the children’s chorus of Uniting Voices Chicago, this one scene is certainly rowdy, uplifting, and joyous. And yet, the main characters are unable to completely shake off the anxiety of their poverty, and because they are forced to flee after getting purse-snatched and have no way of paying, the final tableau of middle-class patriots waving more French flags than there are in Les Misérables is a bitterly ironic conclusion to the first act. When the curtain next rises, the set has been replaced with a freezing factory surrounded by desperate workers, and Rodolfo and Mimi agree to continue their relationship only because separating would make the rest of winter unbearable. Conductor Jordan de Souza is another artist who deserves a lot of credit for the moodiness of this production; the chill in Puccini’s music gave me an uncomfortably vivid reminder of this past winter.
An interpretation I arrived at watching this production is that the characters are not suffering for their art, they are using cheap solitary hobbies as escapism from their suffering. And while the male characters find some comfort in each other, the entanglement of sex with money in a manner that cannot be discussed honestly creates constant resentment and suspicion between men and women. Late in the show, Schaunard makes the horrifying decision to pawn his overcoat to buy Mimi a muff, a thing that serves the same purpose in a far less practical way, just so that she can enjoy a symbol of social status during her last minutes alive. This context made the unfinished Eiffel Tower in the background look menacing to me instead of inspirational. La bohème is an opera that can be appreciated by people who are familiar with the form as well as those who have never been to opera before, and for fans of Rent, it’s essential viewing. Bacaling’s production especially resonates with its themes.
La bohème will continue at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N Upper Wacker Drive, Chicago, thru April 12, with the following showtimes:
March 25: 7:00 pm
March 28: 7:00 pm
March 31: 7:00 pm
April 3: 2:00 pm
April 6: 2:00 pm
April 9: 7:00 pm
April 12: 2:00 pm
Running time is two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission. There is also a thirty-minute preview talk an hour before the show.
Performances are in Italian with English supertitles.
The Lyric offers parking deals with Poetry Garage at 201 W Madison St. if inquired about in advance. Tickets start at $59; to order, visit LyricOpera.org or call 321-827-5600.
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “La bohème.”