A food bank serves as the striking backdrop for Bremen’s La bohème

GermanyGermany Puccini, La bohème: Soloists, Chorus and Extras of Theater Bremen, Bremer Philharmoniker / Sasha Yankevych (conductor). Theater Bremen, 23.12.2024. (DM-D)

Oliver Sewell (Rodolfo) and Adèle Lorenzi (Mimì) © Jörg Landsberg 

Production:
Director – Alize Zandwijk
Set and Lighting – Theun Mosk
Costumes – Anne Sophie Domenz
Chorus and Children’s chorus director – Karl Bernewitz
Dramaturgy – Brigitte Heusinger

Cast:
Mimì – Adèle Lorenzi
Rodolfo – Oliver Sewell
Musetta – Jelena Banković
Marcello – Michael Partyka
Schaunard – Arvid Fagerfjäll
Colline – Jasin Rammal-Rykala
Benoît – Daniel Ratchev
Alcindoro – Jörg Sändig
Parpignol – Sunwoong Park
Customs officer – Allan Parkes
Customs watchman – Marco Simonelli

Before their chosen performance date members of the audience received an invitation to bring along non-perishable groceries. These items were collected in the foyer by members of the local Tafel, or food bank. Café Momus and Scene three were set in and around a large hall where food was being collected and distributed. The cast handled the items brought in by the spectators, and volunteers would later take the items to the food banks they work with. The children in Scene two were equipped with collection boxes and celebrated their success collecting donations. A giant pink polar bear, in the same scene, was also part of the collection activities.

Polar bear (Fabian Düberg) in the second scene of La bohème © Jörg Landsberg 

The artists in Scenes one and four were presented on a very small square platform of wooden pallets, reached across steps and stairs from the wings to the right-hand side of the orchestra pit, and through a hatch from below, accessible from the auditorium. The platform had metal railings on three sides, with stools to sit on, an electric two-burner camping hob, and a metal barrel to serve as a stove. This platform was placed above the orchestra pit, adjacent to the front row of spectators, to the right of the conductor. The proximity of characters/singers to the audience allowed spectators to perceive the shabby nature of the artists’ clothes close-up, including signs that those clothes had not been washed for a long time, if ever. This was particularly true of Rodolfo’s blue woollen pullover and matching gloves.

Alize Zandwijk is the head of directing in the theatre section of Theater Bremen. This production marked her first venture into opera. She enriched the plot with well-developed and finely nuanced characterisation. For example, at Rodolfo’s first encounter with Mimì, he took off the pullover, offered it to Mimi, and she hesitated only for a fraction of a moment, taking in what it looked like, realising but not minding that it was dirty and possibly also smelly. It was a rather wide and baggy garment, and in a momentarily funny turn, he crept into the pullover with her. Mimì looked and acted very frail right from the start, a rare occasion on which Rodolfo’s first impression of Mimì looking very ill made sense.

For the nine performances in this run, Theater Bremen fielded two cast members each for the main characters of Mimì, Musetta, and the four artists, with different mixes and matches so that only two performances were scheduled with the same cast across roles. Oliver Sewell sang Rodolfo with a robust, elegant and thoroughly pleasant voice, most at ease with the louder material, while developing mezza voce for more nuanced use in the future. During ‘Che gelida manina’, he positioned himself noticeably physically in preparation for the high note on speranza. While the lead-up to that exposed high note was not quite clean, he held the note itself steadily for an admirably long time. Adèle Lorenzi as Mimì had a very strong and beautifully expressed lower and middle register, suggesting a mezzo-soprano voice. The higher register was a little less consistent: fluent lines and mellifluous sounds were interrupted by somewhat brittle moments. Although she cut the high C short at the end of ‘O soave fanciulla’, altogether hers was a very moving and engaging portrayal of the role.

Jelena Banković was appropriately lively as Musetta, while also allowing us to see the character’s depth below the apparently superficial surface. Her voice was agile and sparkling. Michal Partyka, Arvid Fagerfjäll, Jasin Rammal-Rykala as Marcello, Schaunard and Colline, respectively, provided very good individual studies of their artist characters. Sasha Yankevych led the orchestra joyfully through the emotional ups and downs of Puccini’s score, while varying volume and tempi according to the singers’ individual needs.

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe

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