A DAY AT THE OPERA with Earl Schub

LA Opera’s La Boheme – It Works !!

It’s too bad that the Los Angeles Opera company’s run of "La Boheme", the world’s most beloved opera, ended on Sunday, December 16th. It could fill the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion right on through the holiday season and, since the action begins on Christmas Eve, that would be most appropriate. This magical work still makes us heady with the joy of young love in the first two acts and brings tears to our eyes with the heartbreaking, but never sentimental, dénouement of the last two acts. Since its triumphant premiere at the Teatro Regio in Turin on February 1, 1896, this close-to-perfect as any piece of musical theater could possibly be, has been well nigh indestructible. And the Los Angeles Opera production which debuted in 1993 continues in this tradition.

Giacomo Puccini was already being acclaimed as the “next Verdi” after his 1893 Manon Lescaut which, coincidentally, also premiered on February 1st in the same theater. Always a slow and careful composer, he took three years to adapt Henri Murger’s immensely popular novel Scenes de la Vie de Boheme. He not only had to urge patience on the part of his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, but was being prodded to complete the score by the knowledge that another composer, Ruggiero Leoncavallo , the composer of the wildly acclaimed I Pagliacci, was working on the same project. The latter’s La Boheme opened 15 months later and so suffered by comparison with Puccini’s version that it is considered a rarity today.

Ably assisted by librettists Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, Puccini caught the essence and spirit of the Murger novel and was able to both gladden and break our hearts all in 2-1/2 hours of unforgettable melodies juxtaposed perfectly with the events being shared by six impressionable, irresistibly romantic young people caught up in a lifestyle punctuated by poverty but never without hope.

This production, originally conceived by the late Herbert Ross, was designed by Gerald Howland and directed by Stanley M. Garner. Originally set by Murger in 1830, it has been transferred to 1897-98 for no particular reason, I suspect, other then to afford us a view of the Eiffel tower. Is the dominating presence of this venerated structure, the world’s tallest when it was opened to the public in 1889 as part of an exposition to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, symbolic of the rise of industry and the concomitant spread of materialism that was sure to doom the artists who populated the Left Bank? Perhaps.

In "La Boheme", the bi-level tenement in which Rodolfo, the poet and Marcello, the painter, share a single room garret offers little cheer beyond the unbridled optimism and good humor of its occupants. These two free spirits are part of a foursome which includes Schaunard, a musician, and Colline, a philosopher. All live their carefree lives from day to day and exist on each other’s ability to somehow come up with enough money for food and, when possible, the rent. When Mimi, a beautiful, impoverished and ailing upstairs neighbor enters Rodolfo’s life and a former love, the coquettish, Musetta, succeeds in once again ensnaring Marcello, our story takes a romantic but ultimately tragic turn. Marcello and Musetta reunite, most likely briefly, at the conclusion but, alas, Mimi returns to her Rodolfo only to die in his arms, a victim of consumption, a disease that wracked the underclass at the same time that the captains of industry were accumulating vast wealth. (The Eiffel Tower symbol, no doubt, as a reminder?)

The young and attractive singers at the December 16th matinee performance of "La Boheme" which I attended filled the bill admirably and capably, if not always thrillingly. Brian Leerhuber (Schaunard) and Oren Gradus (Colline) supported the four principals with the requisite humor and pathos. Luca Salsi (Marcello) wowed us with powerful top tones but was disappointing with almost inaudible low notes. His Musetta, Laquita Mitchell, sang and acted up a storm as the coquette with a golden heart and her big second act show-stopper aria, “Quando m’en vo’ “ did just that. The demanding role of Mimi was entrusted to Maija Kovaleska who, after a somewhat hesitant start and unconvincing “Mi chiamano Mimi” in Act I, got better and better as the show progressed until her poignant death scene in Act IV broke the hearts of all 3,200 people who filled the theater to capacity. This brings us to Massimo Giordano, our Rodolfo, a role that must not only charm but make us as captivated by him as the impressionable Mimi. And he must essentially do all of this within the first 20 minutes of the opera, climaxed by his big aria, “Che gelida manina” in which he takes Mimi’s “frozen little hand” in his and warms her hand and wins her heart. It’s a lot to ask and there’s a high C to boot. Giordano, the one experienced international star in the cast didn’t quite live up to this daunting challenge. The voice was a bit edgy and rough, too many sobs in what should essentially be a straight forward description of who he is and how Mimi has gladdened his eye and I suspect the high C was not there. However, he was ardent and passionate and, like Mimi got stronger and better as the action progressed. All in all, he satisfied.

"La Boheme's" final act is the ultimate test. In it we hear snatches of all the beautiful melodies of the first act reprised and then there is a new one. It is Mimi’s premonition of death, the heart-wrenching “Sono andate” – eight measures of an unbearably exquisite melody – phrases that descend by half-steps that musically mirror the ebbing of her life. It shatters us as we know, yet again, that there will be no happy ending, no getting better. It is heard only once more, as the distraught Rodolfo cries out her name twice as he cradles her lifeless body in his arms and the curtain falls. Kovaleska and Giordano were supremely up to their task. If this doesn’t get you to sob in sympathy and understanding of young love found and then lost forever, nothing will. It did.