Germany Puccini, La bohème: Staatsoper Soloists, Chorus, Extra Chorus and Alsterspatzen of Staatsoper Hamburg. Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg / Ramón Tebar (conductor). Staatsoper Hamburg, 17.12.2024. (DM-D)
Production:
Director – Guy Joosten
Set – Johannes Leiacker
Costumes – Jorge Jara
Lighting – Davy Cunningham
Choreography – Andrew George
Chorus director – Christian Günther
Children and Youth chorus director – Luiz de Godoy
Cast:
Mimì – Yaritza Véliz
Rodolfo – Freddie de Tommaso
Musetta – Katrina Galka
Marcello – Gyula Orendt
Schaunard – Nicholas Mogg
Colline – Han Kim
Benoît – Grzegorz Pelutis
Alcindoro – Keith Klein
Parpignol – Aaron Godfrey-Mayes
A Bouncer – Peter John Bouwer
A Customer – Leo Yeun-Ku Chu
Two Carabinieri – Julius Vecsey, Michael Kunze
This was the 92nd performance of a 2006 production. Johannes Leiacker’s set was striking in depicting credible environments for the opera’s four scenes. The curtain rose to reveal nine rooms in a block of flats, three in a row and three from bottom to top. The bottom row of rooms was for demonstration only, in smaller dimensions with a medium-sized Christmas tree reaching to the low ceiling. The centre room on the middle level was Rodolfo’s, with landlord Benoît living in the adjacent room to the right. A further room showed a TV set left on after the evening programme had ended, while Mimì could be seen in the room above Rodolfo’s, on her bed, at times disturbed by the noise from the surrounding flats. For ‘Che gelida manina’, the bottom level of rooms was lowered out of sight, for ‘Si, mi chiamano Mimì’, only the level with her room remained in view, with a starry sky appearing above. The scene change to Café Momus was achieved by lowering the rooms completely, revealing a giant nutcracker (a mixture of a Buddha statue and a King Kong allusion), surrounded by a circular bar, which revolved and on which Musetta performed the beginning of a striptease act to accompany her ‘Quando m’en vo’. The third scene was set in front of a large shed made of corrugated iron, decorated by a sole neon sign of a heart pierced by an arrow, the door opening to red light from within. This level was raised for the final scene to reveal the block of single rooms, even more run-down than in the first scene, empty, nearly derelict. Within this set, director Guy Joosten presented the artists, and the people in Café Momus, as paupers whose outwardly jolly behaviour was definitely overshadowed by their dismal daily struggle for survival.
Freddie de Tommaso gave his house debut as Rodolfo. His singing was ardent and very energetic. He did not save his voice in ‘Che gelida manina’ aria. The voice was balanced across registers, with strong baritonal foundation: the low m’accora in ‘Che gelida manina’, which can become a brief blemish in many fine renderings of the aria, sounded as open and free at the rest. The voice was strong without ever turning overly loud, able to soar with the orchestra, which conductor Ramón Tebar did not have to hold back for him. For subtler moments, de Tommaso was able to employ mezza voce appropriately. Top notes rang out with almost spine-tingling brilliance.
Yaritza Véliz was magnificent as Mimì. The detail of nuances was striking – clearly she remembered and embodied much of what she had developed in the 2020 Royal Opera Covent Garden masterclass with Sir Antonio Pappano available on YouTube. Her acting was lively and moving, her voice was crystal clear, with a round, velvety core that allowed her both to rise to sparkling top notes and to swing with the rhythms of Puccini’s score. The chemistry between de Tommaso’s Rodolfo and her Mimì also worked well. Both de Tommaso and Véliz have voices suited to large opera houses and will enrich the world of opera for many years to come.
It speaks in favour of Hamburg State Opera’s casting choices that the remaining performers did not disappoint compared with de Tommaso’s and Véliz’s achievements. They all engaged in their acting with gusto. Gyula Orendt was a strong Marcello, very well able to vocally express a wide range of Marcello’s emotions. Katrina Galka displayed bright coloratura as Musetta, Nicholas Mogg sang Schaunard with a full-bodied baritone, Han Kim was a refined and sonorous, rather than black and booming Colline. The performance was greeted with unanimous cheers.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe