NCH, Dublin
Puccini – La Bohème
The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra's concert performances of opera have moved from the rare (Strauss's Elektraand Gerald Barry's Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) to the popular. Friday's performance of Puccini's La Bohèmewas the second in six years.
It’s such a ensemble piece, and full of intricate interactions on the stage, that it seems a strange choice. The drawbacks were obvious – walking on stage with a loaf of bread while also reading from a copy of the score? But so were the strengths.
Under guest conductor Rory Macdonald the weft and the warp of Puccini’s gorgeous scoring could be heard with real depth and clarity.
The size of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and RTÉ Cór na nÓg offered moments of tonal breadth that no Irish opera chorus can match, although there were serious issues regarding precision and plausible delivery of the words.
In Sinéad Mulhern and Bryan Hymel the performance boasted a Mimì and Rodolfo who bonded and blended in some thrilling climaxes. Mulhern elsewhere tended to underplay the part, Hymel, always sure and true, kept the ardency switch on a sometimes implausibly high setting.
Claudia Boyle’s Musetta, a vamp dressed to kill, mixed exhibitionism and real vocal class, and Garry Magee (Marcello), Daniel Grice (Schaunard) and Brindley Sherratt (Colline) completed the lively line-up of principals. The audience gave the kind of response which suggested they would willingly have stayed to hear it all over again.
