Mimì and Rodolfo share a needle of heroin. Then they go to Café Momus, which turns out to be a nightmarish place where groups of odd children wear creepy masks. It could be, of course, that these unpleasant infants are the druggy hallucinations of the hero and and heroine. But since creepy masks are a tired visual trope already seen in hundreds of other opera productions, it could also be that the director of the English National Opera’s new “La bohème” is serving up old barrel-scrapings.It becomes increasingly - and depressingly - obvious that the latter scenario is the case. Director Benedict Nelson updates the action of Puccini’s opera to some time in the last twenty-five years or so, but is vague about the precise period. There are references to Euros (so it’s post-2002), but there are acid-house smilies too (early 1990s.) It’s not the only confusing element of the show. Rodolfo and his bohemian friends sing about how cold their factory-conversion home is, but one of them wears nothing but pyjamas, and the others take their coats off when they enter it.In traditional stagings, the heroine Mimì dies from TB. In this production she dies from some kind of AIDS-related complication (conveniently non-specific, but it involves lots of coughing) possibly contracted via her needle-sharing. Like the masks, this idea is as tired as a clapped-out old jalopy. Several opera houses, including Glyndebourne, have exploited it; so has the Bohème-based musical “Rent”. In Benedict’s version the working-out is unclear. “You’re coughing,” sings Mimì’s friend Marcello, looking at her arm for needle marks. Does he think she has an opportunistic infection? Does he think she’s making her HIV worse by increased drug use? It’s all so hard to tell.The muddle is relieved by Corinne Winters’ performance as Mimì. She’s a fine actor, who can convey as much with a wry smile or a quick turn of the head, as with her rich dark soprano voice. She’s touching and vulnerable, and makes the most of a botched staging. She’s matched by baritone Duncan Rock as a warm-voiced and sympathetic Marcello.The other principals aren’t up to their standard. Tenor Zach Borichevsky is an uneven Rodolfo, and on opening night he dramatically fluffed a crucial money-note. Soprano Rhian Lois, hampered by a fussy and unclear staging of the Momus scene, flails about musically and dramatically as Musetta. Conductor Xian Zhang pushes the orchestra hard, but doesn’t respond to the needs of the principal singers with any flexibility; there are lapses of accuracy too.“Bohème” is a cash-cow, and every opera house needs a revivable production. This isn’t one.“La bohème” runs October 21 through November 26. For further information go to: http://www.eno.org
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