SF Opera: La Bohème
When the SF Opera 08-09 season was announced, we were all excited by the weirder stuff, the Bonesetter's Daughter, or die tote Stadt. "Who needs another La Bohème?" we shrugged at the time.
Turns out, we do. There's something to be said about timeless music performed with contagious enthusiasm by amazing artists. Due to the collapse of the stock market, the endowment of the SF Opera has melted like snow in June. Opera general director David Gockley came on stage last Wednesday (as he will prior to all Bohème performances) to announce the grim news, and pretty much to ask us to keep the Opera in our prayers when we make our end-of-fiscal-year charitable contributions. The more avant-garde production for next year, Peter Grimes, has been canned already, and there are murmurs the Ring could go the same way: it is co-produced by Washington National Opera, which has already canceled its share.
Since current music director Donald Runnicles was slated to conduct Grimes and the Ring, his future with SF Opera would be seriously curtailed. Oh well, we'll do with his successor, Nicola Luisotti: he did a masterful job at the helm of La Bohème, and he is a specialist of the bread-and-butter Italian repertoire we might see more in these tighten-the-belt times. As Chron critic Joshua Kosman perfectly summarizes: If our operatic life is about to get safer and more traditional - and the looming financial crisis would seem to leave little doubt on that point - then the least we can hope for is to have our chestnuts well-cooked. It's our goal in life, to keep our nuts warm!
Georghiu and Bezcala above, picture by SF Opera/Terrence McCarthy. The set of Act II below, in front of Café Momus
This Bohème was so much fun. The big draw, besides the emphatic conducting of Luisotti, is Angela Gheorgiu. We saw her hog the limelight in La Rondine, her performance here seemed strangely subdued. Her Mimi, well, she's sick and dieing, so it makes sense from the point of view of the storyline. Her double cream voice came off in the intimate arias (the Sì, mi chiamano Mimì aria, for instance), but we kinda hoped she'd steal a bit more scenes. Across from her, we had Piotr Beczala, last seen here as Tamino. We love his rich tone of voice, but he was trying out some kind of portimenti (that is, singing a sliding pitch to the targeted note) which we are not too fan of. He carried the day on sheer enthusiasm though. His Rodolfo could entice love at first sight, definitely.
As for Marcello, we were kinda bummed initially that Quinn Kelsey was not singing: he had gotten rave reviews on the previous Sunday matinee, but was busy across Grove street singing the Mahler 8th with the SF Symphony. Turns out, Brian Mulligan does not pale in comparison: booming voice with clear pitch and bright intonation: check; acting chops: check; huggable physical bonhomie: check.
The rest of the Bohemians, Schaunard (Brian Leerhuber), Colline (Oren Gradus) have sung together in last year's LA production (with Maija Kovalevska as well, who headlines the cast on 11/29;12/4 and 12/7) and they have the chemistry down pat: they look as if they're buddies back stage as well, so cohesively they work together. They're also regular on this stage. Norah Amsellem's Musetta shook off some opening night jitters in the second perf, and while she isn't so smooth as Gheorgiu, she commands the attention Musetta craves.
The set is cute, and offers the advantage of quick set changes between Act I and II. Audiences eat it up, and applauded it. For other points of view on La Bohème, check these guys
La Bohème
Remaining performances: tonight 8 pm,Fri Nov 28 2008 8pm, Sat Nov 29 2008 8 pm, Sun Nov 30 2008 2 pm, Tue Dec 2 2008 7:30 pm, Thu Dec 4 2008 7:30 pm, Sun Dec 7 2008 2 pm.
Box office: 864-3330