Scottish Opera: La bohème

Theatre Royal, Glasgow; 11/10/25

Orchestra of Scottish Opera; Chorus & Children’s Chorus of ‘La bohème’; Stuart Stratford (conductor); Hye-Youn Lee (soprano); Mario Chang (tenor); Roland Wood (baritone); Rhian Lois (soprano); Callum Thorpe (bass); Edward Jowle (bass-baritone); Jamie MacDougall (tenor); Matthew Kimble (tenor); Declan McCusker (tenor), Timothy Edmundson (baritone); Jonathan Sedgwick (bass); Djordje Gajic (accordion)

Scottish Opera’s 2025-26 season kicks off with a revival of the 2017 Barbe & Doucet (set and costume designer André Barbe and director/choreographer Renaud Doucet) co-production (with Theater St Gallen) of Puccini’s ‘La bohème’.  I caught the opening night in Glasgow’s Theatre Royal on Saturday 11th October.  A wealth of visual spectacle is to be assumed with Barbe & Doucet, and it was delivered.  In addition, with Guy Simard’s lighting, nothing was left to chance, and we were convincingly transported to a literal picture postcard version of 1920s Paris, replacing the original 1830s setting. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera and The Chorus and Children’s Chorus of ‘La bohème’, together with a stellar cast of principals, were conducted by Stuart Stratford. 

First, a confession of non-impartiality.  For a number of reasons, ‘La bohème’ is my favourite opera. The principal reason is that it was my first live grand opera, in English at the Coliseum with the ENO in the early 1980s, whilst a delegate at a theoretical mechanics conference and lucky to grab one of a handful of tickets reserved by the conference organisers.  The experience was epiphanic.  Exquisitely poignant though Puccini’s pathos-laden music is from a recording, the heart-breaking tragedy of the powerlessness of youthful bluff optimism, friendship and love to defy fateful crushing poverty and illness is a thousand times more real in live performance.  Although, over the subsequent three decades, I lacked either the means or the opportunity (or sometimes both) to be a regular opera-goer, I never lost the motivation. One could say I have spent the last decade making up for lost time.  Readers expecting a takedown of the clichés in ‘La bohème’ will need to look elsewhere.

This production starts with a surprise Prologue before Act I, a modern street scene at the same location in summer, with the Chorus and Children’s Chorus milling around as tourists.  A female street singer, accompanied by an accordionist, sings songs about the timeless appeal of Paris.  As the crowd disperses after the singer moves on, a frail female figure remains, lost in reverie, imagining Paris in a 1920s winter. A recording of the opening bars of Act I plays, overtaken by the orchestra. The unfolding story is her imagining, in which she becomes Mimì and the street singer becomes Musetta.

An excellent Micaëla in the otherwise bizarre Scottish Opera ‘Carmen’ over two years ago and a compelling Violetta in ‘La Traviata’ last year, Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee returned as the shy, gentle, ailing embroiderer of flowers on silk, Mimì, delivering a dramatic and vocal characterisation that portrayed innocence, gentleness and frailty to perfection, so that not only Rodolfo was captivated.  ‘Sì, mi chiamano Mimì’ was more than a mere introduction and stayed real.  When the couple’s relationship is fractured by her encroaching illness and his mixture of guilt and jealousy, her heartrending appeal to his friend Marcello in Act III ‘O buon Marcello, aiuto!’ captured every heart in the house.  Super.

Guatemalan tenor and Juilliard graduate Mario Chang, in his Scottish Opera debut, was the penniless poet and dramatist scratching a living as a hack, Rodolfo. This was a first hearing for me and, in a word, wow.  I heard fabulous lyricism and flawless control over his entire (and considerable) tonal and dynamic range, keeping the bel in bel canto.  From the tenderness of ‘Che gelida manina’ to the passion of ‘O soave fanciulla’ and the Act I love duet, his emotive power was unveiled early, yet keeping something in reserve for the heartbreak later.  His voice blended beautifully with  Hye-Youn’s.  Particularly delicious too was his Act IV duet of wistful yearning with Marcello ‘O Mimì, tu più non torni’.  If there was a dry eye in the house at the final duet of reminiscence of their first meeting between Rodolfo and Mimì, it wasn’t either of mine.  Excellent.

Welsh soprano Rhian Lois (a bubbly Valentina in ‘The Merry Widow’ back in April and a fabulous Zerbinetta in ‘The Strauss Collection’ in March, not to mention an unforgettable soprano line in the Scottish Premiere of MacMillan’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ with the RSNO in November 2023) was Marcello’s outrageous old flame Musetta, a chanteuse, a flapper and a flirt.  When she arrives outside Café Momus in Act II with her wealthy ageing admirer Alcindoro, she launches a farce by tormenting him, and teasing Marcello, with her racy aria ‘Quando me'n vo'’.  Her feigning agony from a broken shoe to send Alcindoro away to get it repaired (and then fall into Marcello’s arms) was hilariously over-the-top.  Stiffing Alcindoro with the Momus bill for all the Bohemians concluded the farce, superbly directed and acted.  In the second part of Act IV, we see a different Musetta, solicitous of the needs of the ailing Mimì, generous and tender, and finally prayerful. All added to the pathos. A fine performance.

Rodolfo’s roommate, the equally impoverished painter Marcello, was played by baritone Roland Wood (a super Marx in ‘Marx in London!’ last year, various concert goodies in the Strauss and French Collections in March and the previous March respectively, Gianni Schicchi in the superb Trittico, and Baron Jaroslav Prus in ‘The Makropulos Affair’).  Big-hearted, quick of wit and temper, the role is as true friend to Rodolfo, accomplice in the ironic Bohemian drollery of the first parts of Acts I and IV, yet confidant to both Rodolfo and Mimì in the chill bleakness of Act III.  Even as Rodolfo and Mimì are reconciled and resolve to stay together till spring, Marcello and Musetta have a blazing row, Puccini’s ingenious quartet at the end of Act III.  Very musically and dramatically satisfying (with the delicious irony that Marcello has just advised Rodolfo to “love light-heartedly”).

Completing the group of friends living the precarious Bohemian lifestyle are the philosopher Colline and the musician Schaunard.  SO Emerging Artist, English bass-baritone Edward Jowle (PC Budd in ‘Albert Herring’, Usher in ‘Trial by Jury’, Press Sec Hugo Cheeseman in ‘A Matter of Misconduct’, Don Iñigo Gomez in ‘L’heure espagnole’ and Luka in ‘The Bear’) was a foppish but generous Schaunard, whose temporary Pythonesque good fortune stems from the improbable gig of playing consoling music for the final hours of a wealthy Englishman’s dying parrot, and is shared as provisions with the others.  Bass Callum Thorpe, who obtained a PhD in Immunology before focusing on vocal studies at the RAM, played Colline, delivering the wistful Act IV aria, ‘Vecchia zimarra’, bidding farewell to his old coat before he pawns it to help pay for medicine, and a muff for Mimì’s cold hands.  Scottish character tenor Jamie MacDougall played two (bass?) roles, the jilted humiliated (but minted) Alcindoro and Benoît the Bohemians’ landlord, equally outsmarted by being sent packing without his rent in mock outrage at his marital infidelity. The rent money thus saved is intended to finance the Momus night out but goes missing.  Musetta’s wiles solve that problem.  What larks!

For completeness, some minor named vocal roles include Parpignol the toy seller in the street scene in Act II (English tenor Matthew Kimble in a stunning horse-and-rider costume, remembered as Malcolm in Paisley Opera’s Macbeth), the Prune Seller from the same scene (Northern Irish tenor Declan McCusker), Customs Officer (bass-baritone Timothy Edmundson) and Sergeant (English bass Jonathan Sedgwick, a characterful Commisario in ‘La Traviata’ in May last year and the decrepit porter in ‘Don Pasquale’ exactly a year ago), both in the opening of Act III.

Serbian Accordion Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Djordje Gajic, whose pupils Sofía Ros and Melia Simonot it has been my pleasure to review for EMR, was the accordionist in the Prologue and also strolled stage front playing an Entr’acte before Act IV based on ‘Quando me'n vo'.  Lovely music and a nice touch directorially..

The street scenes of the Prologue and Act II benefitted from the highest standards of movement direction, costume and lighting, with particular mention reserved for the march past of the Tattoo, the children demanding toys and the men of the chorus fawning over Musetta.  But the chorus is there to sing too and they were thoroughly excellent, including and indeed especially the children.  All were a credit to themselves and Chorus Director Susannah Wapshott’s direction and preparation.  The lighting of Mimì was particularly finely tuned, with such details as moonlight shining on her face to prompt ‘O soave fanciulla’ and a tell-tale cold white spot on her lifeless body letting the audience know before the characters the tragic truth.  As ever, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera and Stuart Stratford honoured Puccini’s genius and provided the flawless aural canvas on which the stage performers could paint an operatic experience to remember.

This ‘La bohème’ revival is another triumph for Scottish Opera.  There are 5 more performances in Glasgow, 2 each in Aberdeen and Inverness, and 5 in Edinburgh.  Highly recommended.

Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic