Opera Review: Opera Theatre and Puccini make beautiful music together in "La bohème"

When Puccini’s “La bohème” premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 (with Arturo Toscanini at the podium, no less) the public and critical reception was lukewarm. That changed quickly as productions became more widespread, and it’s now a favorite of companies around the world.  Opera Theatre’s current production is the seventh in their 49-year history. It might not be their best, but it certainly has its merits.

L-R: Moisés Salazar, Titus Muzi III, Robert Mellon Thomas Glass, André Courville  Photo: Eric Woolsey

For those of you who have missed being exposed to Henri Murger’s episodic 1851 novel “Scènes de la vie bohème” (“Scenes from Bohemian Life”) or Puccini’s opera or Jonathan Larson’s 1996 rock musical adaptation “RENT,” here’s a quick plot summary. On Christmas Eve, the poet Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the philosopher Colline, and the musician Schaunard are young, creative, broke, and burning some of their work to heat their squalid Parisian apartment. Enter the equally poverty-stricken seamstress Mimi, whose candle has gone out, leaving her stuck in the stairwell. Before the first act is over, she and Rodolfo are smitten. The opera chronicles the highs and tragic lows of both their relationship and that of Marcello and the singer Musetta. Mimi dies (of consumption, as tragic heroines were wont to do in the 19th century), Musetta doesn't, and nobody lives happily ever after.

L-R: Moisés Salazar, Katerina Burton Photo: Eric Woolsey

Opera Theatre can generally be relied upon to cast strong singers and have done so here. Former Gerdine Young Artist Moisés Salazar, whose robust tenor served him so well in 2021’s Center Stage Showcase, displays that same power here as Rodolfo. He’s a good match for fellow GYA alumna Katerina Burton, whose lyric soprano has just the right sense of sweetness to offer a pleasing contrast, without being overwhelmed by Salazar. Their justly famous Act I love scene—Rodolfo’s “Che gelida manina,” Mimi’s “Mi chiamano Mimi,” and the duet “O soave fanciulla”—had a kind of childlike innocence, if not a great deal of adult passion.

L-R: Thomas Glass, André Courville, Brittany Renee, Katerina Burton, Moisés Salazar Photo: Eric Woolsey

That offered a sharp contrast to the openly fraught affair of Marcello and Musetta, who like Lois in “Kiss Me, Kate” is “always true to you, darling, in my fashion.” As sung and acted by baritone Thomas Glass (an outstanding Harvey Milk in 2022) and soprano Brittany Renee, both characters felt like full-blooded (if excessively self-dramatizing) adults while Rodolfo and Mimi came across as children playing dress-up. I’m not sure that’s the best way to underline the difference between the two couples, but it does have the advantage of explaining Rodolfo’s jealous rages as mere acts of jejune petulance.

Glass and Renee both have full, robust voices that allow them to project clearly over the crowd in the Café Momus scene. Renee, in particular, radiates a sultry assurance that serves her character well, especially in her show-stopping “Quando m’en vo” (a.k.a. “Musetta’s waltz”).

Bass-baritone André Courville makes an impressive OTSL debut as Colline, providing one of the more moving moments in “Vecchia zimarra,” his tearful Act IV farewell to the faithful old coat he plans to pawn for medicine for the dying Mimi. Baritone Titus Muzi III, who was such a wonderfully fussy Sacristan in “Tocsa” last season, scores again as Schaunard, with his outrageous tale of being hired to sing the role of a rich man’s parrot.

L-R: Thomas Glass, Titus Muzi III,  Moisés Salazar, André Courville Photo: Eric Woolsey

Even the smallest parts in this production have been filled by performers who can boast of considerable vocal and dramatic strength. Witness baritone Robert Mellon—an outstanding Figaro in Union Avenue’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia" in 2021 and an equally remarkable title role in the same company’s “Falstaff” in 2022. Here, he creates a pair of memorable clowns in the roles of the easily befuddled landlord Benoit and Musetta’s hapless sugar daddy Alcindoro, who is stuck with the bill at the end of the Café Momus scene.

Director Michael Shell’s decision to move the action to 1950 and to change the color scheme from technicolor in the Puccini’s Acts I and II to a grim grayscale in acts III and IV doesn’t seem to add much, but neither does it subtract. Besides, I tend to remember the 1950s as being in black and white (in more ways than one), in any case. His direction generally does a good job of keeping focus where it should be and only comes up short in the final moments of the massive Café Momus scene, which has often been an issue for OTSL’s relatively small stage.

Puccini’s intention in that scene was to portray the rich panoply of Parisian street life at Christmas time. As Michele Girardi writes in Gove Online, he achieved that by stacking up “numerous events, entrusting them to small choral groups and soloists, and ensuring appropriate timing and cuts from one scene to another which are almost film-like in their lightning rapidity.” If the stage becomes too crowded, there’s not enough space for the audience to hear to small groups properly, and it all becomes visual and sonic clutter—as it did on opening night.

Katerina Burton, Moisés Salazar Photo: Eric Woolsey

“Puccini,” writes conductor José Luis Gómez in his program notes, “offers the conductor and orchestra a chance to support the singers…but to also be a clear protagonist in the entire drama.” His wonderfully sympathetic reading of the score demonstrates that consistently, especially in places (like the wintry beginning of Puccini’s Act III) in which the composer’s tone painting vividly evokes a frigid February dawn at the city gates. It’s a fine performance, exquisitely played by members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. It’s also the perfect complement to Takeshi Kata’s sets, Amanda Seymour’s costumes, and Marcus Doshi’s lighting.

If you’re a fan of “La bohème” you’ll probably find much to admire in Opera Theatre’s latest presentation of it, which runs through June 30.. If, like me, you can take it or leave it, I doubt this will change your mind.

Performances of “La bohème” are sung in English with English supertitles and take place on the main stage at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus in Webster Groves. Run time is around two and one-half hours, including an intermission between acts II and III. For more information on this and the other three operas in the 2024 season, visit the Opera Theatre web site.