Seattle Opera welcomes back live audiences to McCaw Hall with a moving ‘La Bohème’

Opera criticism

Granted, an opera in which the heroine dies of a respiratory disease may not be the most festive choice Seattle Opera could make to return audiences to McCaw Hall after their 18-month COVID-19 hiatus from performing live to welcome. On the other hand, maybe a good cathartic sob in the form of the most popular opera ever written is exactly what the doctor ordered. Most likely, Puccini’s 1896 “La Bohème” was supposed to open the 2021-22 season, and Seattle Opera saw no need to postpone it.

On Saturday, the cast of the opening night played Yosep Kang and Karen Vuong as Rodolfo, a poet, and Mimì, a seamstress – he was part of a group of four starving artists / roommates in a Paris attic (Seattle would call the loft). and rent for at least $ 2,500 a month), she, the young woman with tuberculosis he is in love with, tortures and loses. They share chemistry and expressiveness in a sympathetic and credible manner. Neither has a big voice, though Vuong sings with a fairly low-key, tight vibrato throughout that adds color and presence; they merge with the orchestra conducted by Joseph Colaneri instead of surpassing it.

The familiar faces of the Seattle Opera John Moore and Ginger Costa-Jackson fiery portray their counterparts, the always unusual Marcello (a painter) and Musetta (a singer). Costa-Jackson relies on a generally weird and strangely mischievous Musetta who puts aside charm and seduction in a role that is designed to, and often does, run away with with the show in the pocket. Ashraf Sewallam and Eugene Villanueva vividly play the other two roommates, the philosopher Colline and the musician Schaunard (the musician is the only one of the four to make money, another clue that this is a fictional story), and Barry Johnson plays the Comic slides Benoit and Alcindoro.

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The direction of David Gately executes the details of this business-heavy opera smoothly and clearly – although I consider it a misjudgment to give Musetta and Marcello so much leeway to get Mimì and Rodolfo on stage in the final quartet of the 3rd act A quarreling one Couple at the same time against a reconciling couple can be quite poignant, considering we know what will happen in the final act when the two couples are skillfully balanced.

Social distancing considerations and budget realities have conspired to keep the choir relatively small in this production (the café scene in Act 2 is quaint, but don’t expect a spectacle) and the orchestra unusually small (the greatly reduced orchestration is by Bryan Higgins) . In Puccini’s original, much of “bohème” is lightly cast anyway, so that little magic is lost – except that it makes a surprisingly big difference to hear the crushing brass chorale at the tragic climax with only four instruments instead of the usual eight. (Here it just sounds like a car alarm, a decided mood killer.)

So, if it’s not an ideal “bohemian”, it’s an engaging, moving, and effective way for Seattle Opera to retreat to fully staged opera in front of a live audience. Impressively romantic, it’s not exactly escapism; The depiction of the devastating poverty in a country without a comprehensive health system in the opera is as topical as the front page of tomorrow.

‘Bohemian’

Music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Until October 30th; McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; Masks and proof of vaccination (or negative coronavirus test for exempted persons) required; $ 49- $ 249; 206-389-7676, seattleopera.org

Gavin Borchert is a freelance writer and composer. Email: gkb1963@seanet.com. This report is supported in part by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.