{"id":495337,"date":"2025-10-13T05:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T05:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495337\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T05:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T05:22:13","slug":"la-boheme-theatre-royal-glasgow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495337\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLa boh\u00e8me\u201d, Theatre Royal, Glasgow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Brown on Clydeside<\/strong>
12 October 2025<\/strong>
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/strong><\/p>\n

Puccini\u2019s great opus\u00a0La boh\u00e8me is one of the four most performed works in the global operatic canon. Based on Henri Murger\u2019s 1851 novel Sc\u00e8nes de la vie de Boh\u00e8me\u00a0and premiered in Turin in 1896, the opera tells the story of Mimi, an impoverished Parisian seamstress, and her friends, who are struggling artists and writers (the \u201cBohemians\u201d of Murger\u2019s title).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mario Chang and Hye-Youn Lee.
Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The beloved work is given vivid and emotive expression in this staging by co-producers Scottish Opera and Theater St. Gallen of Switzerland. A revival of the deservedly acclaimed production from 2017, the piece is directed, designed and choreographed by the operatic duo Barbe & Doucet (aka Andr\u00e9 Barbe and Renaud Doucet).<\/p>\n

Performed under a huge photographic postcard of residential Paris in the nineteenth century, the drama (in which Puccini\u2019s music is partnered by a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa) is set within the frame of the French capital as it is today (complete with international tourists). However, the action of the piece occurs in the early 1830s, a period that wedged uneasily between the end of the Napoleonic era and the proletarian uprising of the Paris Commune in 1871.<\/p>\n

Barbe & Doucet\u2019s hyper-real set \u2013 which depicts a small square in downtown Paris \u2013 is a work of deceptive versatility. It accommodates with impressive ease the gloomy, desperately cold loft apartment that is home to Mimi\u2019s lover, the poet Rodolfo, and his friends.<\/p>\n

There it is that the ill-fated, consumptive Mimi and Rodolfo first meet, and \u2013 in a moment of delightful dramatic shorthand \u2013 fall in love almost instantaneously. The scene contains \u2013 in \u2018Che gelida manina\u2019 (\u2018What a frozen little hand\u2019) \u2013 one of the great arias of Italian opera.<\/p>\n

The celebrated Guatemalan tenor Mario Chang (playing Rodolfo) delivers the song with a combination of sensitivity and power that truly tingles the spine. Opposite him, the superb South Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee imbues Mimi\u2019s response (\u2018Si, mi chiamano Mim\u00ec\u2019 \/ \u2018Yes, they call me Mimi\u2019) with a range and feeling that are equally affecting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outstanding performances by Chang and Lee extend throughout the cast. The painter Marcello (Roland Wood), the musician Schaunard (Edward Jowle), the philosopher Colline (Callum Thorpe) and the singer Musetta (Rhian Lois) are all sung beautifully and rendered with skilful empathy.<\/p>\n

Tragic though the opera ultimately is, this intelligent and bold production draws out its sense of spectacle, and its sense of humour, beautifully. For instance, there is delicious visual humour \u2013 during a scene in contemporary Paris \u2013 when a glamorous young woman is joined by a self-regarding, silver-haired gent who looks like the late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.<\/p>\n

Barbe & Doucet\u2019s stated objective is to create opera productions that land \u201csomewhere between the sacralization of a work, which kills it by rendering it inviolable, and the betrayal of a work, which only corrupts it\u201d. It is an admirable aim, and one that this marvellously balanced production achieves in spades.<\/p>\n

At Theatre Royal, Glasgow, various dates until 25 October, then touring Scotland until 22 November:\u00a0https:\/\/www.scottishopera.org.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Brown on Clydeside12 October 2025\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 Puccini\u2019s great opus\u00a0La boh\u00e8me is one of the four most performed works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-495337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115365186559879702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}