Mayflower Theatre, Southampton – until 24th November 2022
Reviewed by Emma Barnes
4****
Welsh National Opera brings La Bohème to Southampton, and with winter on the horizon what a befitting way to transition into the new season.
Picture the scene, it’s a cold and bitter Christmas eve in 19th-century Paris. Four artist friends – a painter, a musician, a poet and a philosopher are poverty stricken but happy in their Bohemian existence, avoiding the rent man and scrounging free meals. Their fates change forever with a visit from a neighbour, the ill fated Mimi (Anush Hovhannisyan), an embroiderer, who is looking for a light for her candle and finds love with poet Rodolpho (Luis Gomes).
The first half of the opera is optimistic and exuberant. Love is in the air and the café scene lights up the stage with birds, song, fireworks and happiness. Musetta (Haegee Lee) a singer and on off lover of Marcello, the painter (Rodion Pogossov) makes an entrance, for us the highlight of the show was undoubtably Musetta’s flirtatious waltz accompanied by the wonderful WNO orchestra, what a treat.
The second half becomes increasingly dark and impending as Mimi’s health weakens and it becomes clear that fate, circumstance and poverty allows the four friends very little opportunity to influence her fate.
La Bohème is a love story, a tragedy. It is said to be one Puccini’s greatest works, a deeply emotional opera with wonderfully romantic music. The clever juxtaposition between dark and light, poverty and wealth, sickness and health are all played out as we were exposed to the extremes of human experience.
The staging was excellent, from the smoky grey rooftops scenes of the Latin Quarter, the joyous and colourful café scene, to the snowfall at the start of act three which set the tone for the events that followed, everything was perfectly balanced to capture the emotion played out in scene.
La Bohème is often cited as the perfect opera for a newcomer. I watched this production alongside my Mother who has enjoyed this opera several times, and my friend who was entirely new to the experience. We were all thrilled by the rollercoaster of emotions.
Is it better to have loved and lost than never loved at all ? We think so. This was both a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of love shining through, told through the lens of poverty, despair and loss.