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Puccini, La Bohème: Estonian National Opera, Tallinn, 29.10.2010 (Premiere) (GF)

Stage Director – Ran Arthur Braun

Set Designers – Ran Arthur Braun, Riccardo Gallino

Costumes Designer – Elo Soode

Lighting Designer – Neeme Jöe

 

Cast:

Mimi – Heli Veskus

Musetta – Helen Lokuta

Rodolfo – Gregory Warren

Marcello – Rauno Elp

Colline – Priit Volmer

Schaunard – René Soom

Benoit & Alcindoro – Väino Puura

Parpignol – Jan Oja

Customs Officer – Ivo Onton

Sergeant – Pavlo Balakin

 

Estonian National Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Boys’ Choir / Arvo Volmer

 

Transporting standard operas in time, normally closer to our own, seems to be the universal recipe today to help audiences identify more easily with the characters on stage, but the method has its risks and quite often the brew takes on a taste that works the other way round: distancing instead of getting closer. In the Estonian National Opera’s new La Bohème, the Israeli stage director and set designer Ran Arthur Braun has moved the proceedings to the post - World War II era and given the characters partly new identities. They have lost faith in life and the future and escape into a fantasy world. This is what the director tells the audience in a brief note in the programme. Without that information, I wouldn’t have known and I am always sceptical toward this kind of modernisation which requires that I consult a manual to understand the performance. But, let me hasten to add, the music is untouched, the cast sings Illica and Giacosa’s libretto and the synopsis in the programme tells the traditional story. The fantasy world is illustrated through projections of buildings in comic strip fashion, reminding viewers of Disney’s Cars: elastic houses that change shape in a dreamlike manner. In the final act, the buildings are eventually transformed into ruins.

 

If this is a nod in Walt Disney’s direction, it seems that in act II, the Café Momus scene, Braun has turned to Hollywood and the 1952 movie Singing in the rain, roughly contemporaneous with the new timeframe for this Bohème. The chorus appears in yellow raincoats and yellow umbrellas – but without Gene Kelly! Gimmicks like this may have their charm, but they can also distract from the heart of the matter. Puccini’s operas have obvious pitfalls when balancing the comic scenes against the drama, the tragedy. The opening scene in this opera is one such case where it is tempting for the director to indulge in slapstick. I think Braun goes too much over the top here and the result is tiring rather than amusing, more like an amateur revue group than a stylish opera company. The scene with Benoit, the landlord – in a wheelchair! – was painful and I could mention many more examples of low comedy. Some visitors no doubt appreciated this; I saw some youngsters who audibly took delight in it.

 

It seemed also that all the rehearsal time spent on farce could have been better used to delineate the emotional scenes. In the first act at least, the most famous scene of all, the first meeting between Rodolfo and Mimi lacked all the magic, and the sensual moment when their hands meet felt awkward. A true disappointment. Things improved however, and the last two acts were enjoyable on the whole.

 

Vocally there were also ups and downs. Rauno Elp’s strong baritone is not very gratifying, but his somewhat hammy singing suited Marcello who in this production is rather hot-tempered. Priit Volmer’s Colline was not quite as steady and sonorous as I had expected but he made amends in the last act with a warm and inward coat aria. The best among the male characters was actually René Soom’s Schaunard, with beautiful tone and fine legato. A pity this time that he had so comparatively little to sing. The young American tenor Gregory Warren, who has been a member of the ensemble at Deutsche Oper Berlin for a few years now, sported a rather weak voice, almost a tenorino, I thought, in the first act. It turned out that he had resources up his sleeve, though, and Che gelida manina was good but not very Italianate. After the interval, which occurred between acts II and III, he delivered impassioned singing with glow and heroic ring.

 

Heli Veskus, who was a marvellous Amelia in Un ballo in maschera some years ago, also took a little time to warm up, but she too was back on form in act III and her singing and acting both there and in the finale was deeply touching. It came as a surprise to find Helen Lokuta cast as Musetta. I have heard her a number of times as a great mezzo-soprano, but as it turns out, she also has all the top notes required for the waltz aria.

 

As was to be expected, Arvo Volmer led his orchestral and choral forces in a wholly idiomatic performance

 

Göran Forsling