La Boheme:

The emotional power of Puccini

by Gwen Herat at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

London can never be without its opera and ballet, the centre for human emotion, exuberance and poignance.

The summer had set the stage as thousands flocked to the Royal Opera House (ROP) to see Puccini's production of La Boheme and in the crowd, Parveen and I got pushed along though we are not particulary fond of opera. But today, this was different; more interacting than opera that came off well in a combination of charm, melody and emotional power.

Boarded on the stage of the Royal Opera, this potent, heart-breaking timeless opera was first performed in 1974 in about two hours that one cannot do better than this Puccini classic.

It is instantly appealing even to those who are not addicted to opera, containing great music and fulsome characters. Accepted as one of the world's much loved among all operas, it is revived for today's performance by Cornelius Meister whose debut is today as conductor at the Royal Opera.

He will be conducting only for the summer season along with a chair of wonderful international singers such as Angela Gheghiu and Vittorio Grigolo along with Ermonela Jaho and Charles Castronova who take on the central roles.

The present production we are seeing tonight was created 40 years ago by John Copley for the Rop and it emerged as a classic by its own merit. It boosted Puccini to the hilt and La Boheme as must-perform classic by all conductors who specialise in opera conducting.

Revelation

La Boheme is an extraordinary revelation of a detailed and naturalistic recreation of the crowded life in crude Paris of the 1930s but remained strong enough to serve as the powerful tragic love story of Mimi and Rodolfo who meet one chilly Christmas night, quickly warmed by their instant attraction but shared love turns to tragedy overcome with misunderstanding and illness that stress them.

But around it all is magic and music of Bohemian life in Paris that goes on. However, it is a poignant contrast to the darkness themes of this bitter-sweet and enduring score.

The beautiful Angela Gheorgiu comes off creditably well as the tragic Mimi equally on par with the sensitive Vittorio Grigolo as the powerful singing-bird, Rodolfo. The equally talented RPO chorus and the orchestra of the ROP with their professional artistic contribution made La Boeme Puccini magic of the night.

This opera has a Verdi touch or still better, Veredi influence because Puccini admitted that Verdi was his only soul influence that made George Bernard Shaw then a music critic to say that Puccini looked more like an heir to Verdi more than all his rivals.

With his mega opera, La Boheme, he confirmed this ideal and those who are familiar with Verdi music will vouch for this. With immediate effect the opera became Puccini's masterpiece, produced all over the world and still conducted in every concert in their classical elements that I see tonight in all its glory.

La Boheme

Those who have not seen La Boheme or an opera, gets hooked on this immortal score the moment he sets his eyes upon it. Such is the electrifying effect and becomes a marvellous introduction to the whole experience because it is loaded with some of the music's best known arias along with a touching tale of doomed love. One has to be pretty hard of heart not to respond to Puccini's sumptious score laden with high passion, drama and heart rendering lyricism.

Rodolfo's Act 1. known as Your tiny hand is frozen’ or better known as ‘Your Tiny Hand’ is one of the popular of all tenor arias while Mimi respons with the ‘Yes, they call me Mimi’ is hardly less appreciated. Then, there is ‘Quando me’ known as Musetta's Waltz Song and the melting quartet from Act. 3 ‘Adido Dolce Svegliare’ Originally conducted by Beecham.

Who is Puccini?

Italian Giacome Puccini was born at Lucca in 1858, December and died in November 1924 at Brussels. He had one of the longest names a composer carried; Giacome Antonio Domenic Michael Secondo Maria Puccini. Influenced by Verdi, he only composed opera.

But in later life, he absorbed elements of Wagner, Debussy ad still later, Stravinsky. His music was opulent and clear-cut for classical orchestration and some melodies bitter-sweet mixed with tender lyricism.

As a child he showed no interest in music though he was destined to be the greatest in the least generation of the dynasty of Italian musicians. His grandfather and father were church composers held in high esteem.

He had a determined mother who wanted him to follow the family and sent him to the Institute of Musicale in Lucca. His instant talent was recognised by his teacher, Carlo Angeloni and before long he was laying the piano lie a real Puccini.

But when he visited paris in 1876 and saw the production of Verdi's AIDA that fired his passion and made up his mind to follow in the footsteps of Verdi, his hero. There was no stopping him as he raced through to face and glory until 65 and died of a heart-attack.

His last reportoire of the opera he could not finish, remains revered by the public though he could not finish the last two scenes of the score and subsequently completed from his sketches by France Alfanso.

Some of his essential works are Manon Lescaut (1893), Tosca (1900), Madam Butterfly (1904), Turandot (1026), The Golden Girl of the West (1910), Gianni Schicchi (1918).

Today's Cast for La Boheme is different for the other performance to follow in the next few days.