In 2012, when Los Angeles Opera had once again revived a 19-year-old production of “La Bohème” — fancied for its Toulouse-Lautrec-inspired sets, cinematic pizzazz and echt-romanticized filmic story telling by Hollywood director Herbert Ross — I wrote that the beloved production has earned its keep, but no production lasts forever. It lasted. There it was, three years later, back at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Some Angelenos had other ideas. Gustavo Dudamel conducted a futurist new production of “La Bohème” in Paris that took place in outer space. Disruptive opera director Yuval Sharon, founder of The Industry, came up with the arresting idea of presenting “La Bohème” backwards, beginning with the death of Mimi in the fourth act and sending the audience home in the rapture of the Act 1 love duet between Mimi and Rodolfo. He spectacularly pulled that off at the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina and at Detroit Opera, where he is now artistic director.
L.A. Opera was not, however, far behind. In 2019, the company imported Barrie Kosky’s provocative and brilliantly staged rethinking of “Bohème” from the Komische Oper in Berlin. Puccini’s endearing Parisian bohemians reflected who we are, our issues and our weirdness. It was funny, menacing, outrageous and meaningfully serious.
But it’s out with Barrie, back to ye old “Bohème.”
For the company’s 40th season, L.A. Opera is going in reverse historic order, looking back at its most successful, which is to say longest running and most performed (which may also be to say most profitable), production. “Bohème,” it so happens, is also the company’s most performed opera and most seasons, the most performed opera in the world.
The latest revival of the Ross production, which I saw at its second performance Sunday afternoon, runs through Dec. 14. Well cast and still able to set off a spark or two on stage, it is not likely to disappoint a holiday crowd.
You could call this tradition, like a familiar Ross picture in regular rotation on Turner Classic Movies. Who isn’t happy to see “Fanny” turn up or “The Turning Point,” a dance bonanza reminding us of Ross’ ballet training? His career began as a dancer and choreographer at American Ballet Theater and on Broadway, and a principal delight in 1993 was Ross’ skill in instilling in singers in “Bohème” a mindfulness for movement.
What changes over the years (and decades) is, of course, the cast, conductor and director (Ross died in 2001). The popularity of the production and the opera meant L.A. Opera could keep costs down and interest up by employing rising young singers and finding conductors from all over (Plácido Domingo conducted the early performances; Dudamel made a guest appearance in 2016).
The current revival is no exception. Of this year’s principal singers, four are making their debut with the company, two are veterans of the Ross production and one of the Kosky. The company’s resident conductor, Lina González-Granados is another new to the production as it the stage director, Brenna Corner.
The fit is easy. Paris is on the verge of modernity. The Eiffel Tower is not yet topped. The young bohemians — Rodolfo (poet), Marcello (painter), Schaunard (musician), Colline (philosopher) — have their creativity and their poverty. They are ready to remake the world from their cold-water garret. Their women — Mimi (a consumptive neighbor who falls for Rodolfo) and Musetta (a lively singer and lady about town) — supply the depth to bring them down to earth.
The rising Italian tenor, Oreste Cosimo, in his L.A. debut, and well-known soprano, Janai Brugger, are a slight vocal mismatch as the lovers Rodolfo and Mimi. Cosimo’s voice is light, not quite big enough for a so-called Pavilion that operates as an opera house, but it has focus, flexibility and charisma, as does Cosimo, himself, a talented actor.
Brugger, who appeared as Musetta in the 2012 and 2016 “Bohème” revivals, offers lushness. A fast vibrato at first was her only hint of frailty. Once that toned down, she emanated, through happiness and sorrow, alike, commanding opulence. Somehow, the lovers jibed. Gihoon Kim (Marcello), William Guanbo Su (Colline) and Emmett O’Hanlon (Schaunard) — all, like Cosimo, newcomers to the company — proved a believable multicultural collective of young Parisian émigrés, each with a charm.
Rod Gilfry, once a dashing Rodolfo and a singer who has long been everything you can imagine, made comic turns, perfectly timed, as the old landlord, Benoit, and as Musetta’s hapless rich lover, Alcindoro. Erica Petrocelli, formerely Musetta in the Kosky “Bohème,” toned it down theatrically in this far tamer production, but vocally she let rip. González-Granados’ made exclamatory spirit her pastime, the orchestra bright-toned, tight and on the beat, at times strikingly so.
The production may not feel quite as grand as it once did, yet Christmas Eve partying, with the children and frolickers, still dazzles. Rodolfo and Marcello biking along the Seine, a pair of emotionally clueless bros coming to grips with their relationships and, thus, to reality, still strikes a note of pathos as it becomes clear that Mimi is dying. The tragedy plays out with robust eloquence.
Perhaps productions may, after all, last forever and a day. Our 32-year-old “Bohème” comfort zone survives. In New York, Franco Zeffirelli’s flashy 1981 “Bohème” is helping keep the lights on at the Metropolitan Opera throughout the season, with four different conductors and nearly as many casts.
But if that is what it takes to, say, finance an inevitable overturning of tradition, as Sharon’s new production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” promises at the Met in March, then bring on the “Bohèmes.”
‘La Boheme’
Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 Grand Ave., L.A.
When: Through Dec. 14.
Tickets: $59 – 435
Running time: About 2hour, 30 minutes
Info: (213) 972-8001, laopera.org