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La Bohème

 
Mark Harding Review by Mark Harding 5 Published: 14 Oct 2025 Theatre Royal Show Dates: 11 Oct 2025-25 Oct 2025

Ah, the glamour of consumption! Responsible for 25% of nineteenth-century mortality, death from consumption (TB) was horrible; yet culturally it was seen as the glamorous death – a beautiful sacrifice to a life lived too deeply and too fast. Perhaps in reaction to its sentimental treatment in Victorian literature, some productions of La Bohème try to add stirrings of revolution. But those tricks simply work against the opera, which was specifically designed to be a personal, intimate story.

For insight, ingenuity, setting, characterisation, cast, and musical treats, this La Bohème is a revelation

Reviving the show from 2017, André Barbe and Renaud Doucet’s insightful production at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, hits the perfect balance between honouring the opera’s intentions and providing a bridge between the modern day and the social context it had for its original audience.

La Bohème, at least to a degree, de-glamourises consumption by making Mimi, the heroine, a poor seamstress living a restricted life of poverty and loneliness. Puccini balances this element with the colourful garret of Rodolfo and his fellow poor artists, who live it large at any opportunity. Barbe and Doucet (stage direction and sets and costumes) carefully underline the effects of poverty on Mimi’s life while providing the artists’ roles with hilarious clowning and stage business.

This is balanced by modern settings – prior to Act I and a superb modern-day opening to Act III – providing one of the most elegant transitions of the present dissolving into the past that I’ve seen on stage. The delicate lighting is designed by Guy Simard. These settings remind us – as Mimi’s story would have reminded the contemporary audience – of the gulf between the comfortably off and the poor.

Of course, everything depends on the singers, and they are a sparkling cast. Roland Wood as Marcello ranges from clowning to portraying a fraught, complex relationship with his lover, Musetta. Rhian Lois plays Musetta with vivacious, over-the-top comic selfishness mixed with heartfelt sympathy for others. Their arias and quartets with the main lovers are stunning. Colline (Callum Thorpe) and Edward Jowle as Schaunard are characters in their own right, rather than merely supporting cast – so much so that you worry about the rest of the characters’ lives after the curtain has dropped.

The lovers are played by Hye-Youn Lee and Mario Chang. Chang’s Rodolfo is outstanding in the emotion given to his vocal delivery and acting, and the romcom elements between the lovers are played with charming lightness and wit. Hye-Youn Lee as Mimi shows the inner depths of what could be an insipid character. This is the second consumptive role she has played for Scottish Opera; ironically, she is going from strength to strength.

As we expect from Scottish Opera, there is attention to detail and quality in all elements – from the always impressive orchestra, conducted by Stuart Stratford, through to the children’s chorus (directed by Susannah Wapshott), the marching band, and the outstanding accordion playing (Djordje Gajic).

For insight, ingenuity, setting, characterisation, cast and musical treats, this La Bohème is a revelation.

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The Blurb:

In Barbe & Doucet’s colourful production set in 1920s Paris, four struggling bohemians' lives are changed when they meet a seamstress called Mimì. A blossoming romance becomes short-lived when they discover that Mimì is ill. Struggling to survive in the lavish yet unforgiving city, these charismatic characters are met with the harsh realities of poverty and fortune.

A first-rate cast brings this tender, tragic, yet life-affirming story to life. Hye-Youn Lee plays Mimì. She is joined by ‘born bel canto tenor’ (New York Times) Mario Chang in his Scottish Opera debut, Roland Wood, Rhian Lois, Callum Thorpe, Edward Jowle, and Jamie MacDougall.

Creatives: Conductor Stuart Stratford & Toby Hession, Stage Direction, Sets & Costumes Barbe & Doucet, Lighting Designer Guy Simard

The Orchestra of Scottish Opera

Cast: Mimì Hye-Youn Lee, Rodolfo Mario Chang, Marcello Roland Wood, Musetta Rhian Lois, Colline Callum Thorpe, Schaunard Edward Jowle, Alcindoro / Benoît Jamie MacDougall

Language: Sung in Italian with English supertitles