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Atlanta Opera’s ‘La Boheme’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opera Review
The Atlanta Opera’s “La Boheme.”
Thursday at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. (Show repeats Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm.) www.atlantaopera.org
The Atlanta Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” doesn’t try to be stylish, provocative or even fresh — just consistent.
Maybe the company is still finding its groove under new general director Dennis Hanthorn? Ticket sales are again climbing, but perhaps the opera’s recently-calmed budget crisis continues to unsettle its artistic values?
Whatever the causes, this “Boheme” never aspires to be anything more than auto-pilot Puccini.
A morbid little romance, “Boheme’s” plot is supposed to be fool-proof entertainment. Act one, boy meets girl with a bad cough. Act two, the love couple goes public. Act three, they quarrel and reconcile. Act four, girl dies. Add a second romantic subplot and a couple of slapstick maneuvers and you’ve got the one of the most popular operas of the past century.
Peter Dean Beck’s sets (rented from Opera Carolina) and period costumes depict sooty 19th century Paris, where a quartet of artsy wannabes live and love in their attic apartment and drink at the neighborhood cafe.
On Thursday, Canadian soprano Sally Dibblee sang the doomed heroine Mimi with a warm, nuanced, full-sized voice. Tenor Mark Thomsen proved a charmless paramour as the poet Rodolfo. His voice was bland and half the strength of hers for their gloriously gushing love duet, “O soave fanciulla.”
If there are multiple ironies in the sick girl with steel lungs and her healthy, weakling lover, they remained unresolved right to the end.
In Musetta’s waltz, Elizabeth Carter sang evenly across her range, delivering full top notes but with a hint of vinegar in her tone.
Her lover, Marcello the painter, received deluxe casting in Frank Hernandez, his baritone booming and confident, with a manner equally outgoing. Some coarse phrasing added to his appeal: He was comfortable in his own voice and a bit of a ham.
Philosopher Colline gets a haunting song near the end, which bass-baritone Alfred Walker delivered with youthful fortitude. Of the artsy roommates, the musician Schaunard has the least memorable character, which suited Jeff Morrissey’s thin baritone. Steve Huff and John Davies made the most of their brief walk-on parts.
Bliss Hebert’s stage direction was alert, unobtrusive and sometimes funny. The strongest component came from Walter Huff’s chorus, delivering warmth, precision and gusto whenever called upon. It’s likely that Atlanta boasts one of the strongest operatic choruses in America. Is this a surprise?
One serious quibble concerned conductor Ward Holmquist, artistic director of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, who made his Atlanta Opera debut Thursday. With little dramatic flair, he left Puccini’s intricate scene painting under-explored. When the boys burn paper to keep warm in act one, for example, Puccini’s music suggests flickering flames. Holmquist let the fragile moment pass without notice.
Although he drew a broad, firm sound from the orchestra, the conductor tinkered at whim with the flow of the music; rather than heighten the drama, the lurches gave the singers and orchestra trouble. As a result, Dibblee and Carter, for their biggest arias, often didn’t sway with the same beat as the orchestra. Such stage-pit complications are likely — hopefully — to be resolved for subsequent performances.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Classical Music
Comments
By Suzanne
February 11, 2005 10:29 AM | Link to this
The AJC should be proud to have Pierre Ruhe as its opera critic in residence. I feared that after his searingly on-target review of last season’s “Carmen” he had been relegated to reporting on out of town events and providing pre-event blurbs for local opera. Thankfully this is not the case. My husband and I were at the opening night of “La Boheme”, also. I choose opening night to attend, because of the innate energy and electricity that usually ignites both the cast and the crowd. Last night was a disappointment. The evening got off to a thuddingly boring start with a 20 minute presentation ceremony of framed artwork for the newly minted postage stamp in honor of Marion Anderson. This was something that could have been shortened to five minutes and handled with appropriate fanfare in the lobby pre-show. As it was, the seated opening night audience was presented a poorly-delivered and tedious Cliff notes version of the life of the great contralto that served to remind us all of the more torturous required course lectures of our college days. In other words, it put us to sleep. Not a good thing for a “curtain-raiser”. I concur with Mr. Ruhe’s critique of the opera’s performance quality. Frank Hernandez in the role of Marcello, delivering the first sung notes of the evening, injected some much-needed vigor into the atmosphere. How disappointing that the lead role of Rodolfo was poorly projected; his rejoinders to Marcello were delivered as through a muffler, and invited comment from audience members in our section. He was no match for any other voice on the stage Thursday, delivering none of the overwrought poetic passion that drives Rodolfo’s intense and immediate attachment to Mimi as well as his suspicious rage. A complete disappointment in the role. Elizabeth Carter was clumping and graceless in her physical portrayal of Musetta; with the exception of some come hither body language for Quando M’en Vol, her famous and well-delivered aria, she generally gave the impression of Ma Kettle as she navigated the stage, a shame since her voice was well-suited to the part. Musetta has a big job to do, to live up to the fanfare and reputation that precedes her onto the stage; she must embody all that is luscious and compellingly female. Last night the job was not done. Sally Dibblee’s Mimi was tender, beautiful and resonant, musically and emotionally. A truly memorable reading of the part. It is a shame that her stellar performance was laid in the midst of such uneven casting. Keep up the good work, Pierre Ruhe. Perhaps with your continuing to tell the leadership of the Atlanta Opera “what it is” we will eventually get a truly first class regional company. Atlanta deserves it.
By Daniel
February 11, 2005 01:01 PM | Link to this
One of the biggest issues that is being ignored is that fact that, in a regular sized house, the shortcomings of otherwise good artists would not become so apparent. I was in attendance both for the dress rehersal and opening night. Mr. Thomson is a fine lyric tenor with a well produced voice, and he would be a good Rodolfo in most houses. Not in Atlanta, since we have the stadium sized venue for an opera house. Let us not forget that Mrs. Diblee’s instrument is, well, extra ordinary in size and timbre. To compare the two and judge Mr. Thompson’s voice as “poorly projected” is to ignore the fact that the Civic Center poses unnatural challenges for the human voice. It is unfair. Artists give what they have.
Thank you Mr. Ruhe for cutting down on the venom.
By F. Eusebius
February 11, 2005 03:41 PM | Link to this
A correction — Bliss’s last name is Hebert, no extra ‘r’. Otherwise an excellent review, if a little unfair to Mr. Thomsen, who is an excellent, and very consistent artist. The Civic Center’s vastness does make a good argument for understanding the difficulties a lyric instrument may experience there. It is good to see Mr. Huff’s choristers get the kudos they so richly deserve - Atlanta has some of the finest resident singers for a city of it’s size as you will ever find.