La Boheme Erkel Theatre Budapest
Dec 14th 2019
This performance, in many ways, provided the perfect seasonal counterpart to my recent Nutcracker as they both shared many excellent qualities.
Production-wise, both were very traditional – what was said in the libretto/stage directions was what you got. The sets for Boheme made good use of the width of the Erkel stage and the Café Momus scene got a round of applause as the curtain rose. Probably the most effective set was that in Act 3 outside the gates of Paris where there was exquisite care given to details of seasonal colouring and lighting with a very effective sense of space and distance achieved solely by artful and skillfully pained perspective. At no time were the performers distracted by what was on stage and their positioning and interactions were convincing and at times very powerful. The only part that had a slightly forced feel to it were the high jinks in Act 4 just before the arrival of Musetta with the dying Mimi where to me the performers seemed unconvinced by what they were doing.
As with the ballet virtually all the cast were home-grown and of a uniformly good to very good standard – no weak links at all. As Schaunard and Marcello, Sandor Csaba and Szegedi Csaba gave nicely nuanced performances with well-produced and richly even tones – the Act 4 ‘overcoat’ aria was particularly fine. Rame Lahaj was a very fine Rodolfo. He looked the part and sang with stylishly rich tones with no forcing or over-manipulative emotion – just let Puccini’s music work its magic for manipulative effect…which it did as always! The Mimi of Kele Brigitta was excellent. She has a lovely attractive and very well-controlled voice with no register breaks and floated some gorgeous top notes. As Musetta, Roser Orsolya Hajnalka made the most of this great gift of a part and rose to the dramatic challenges of the final scene very powerfully. In Café Momus she was also effectively controlled and did not over-exaggerate which many performers have the tendency to do if the director does not reign them in. her Walt song was taken notably slower than usual which gave it a very effective steamily sensual effect, something that I have very rarely heard in this piece. There was an air of languorous longing to the performance which made the renewed relationship with Marcello that much more convincing.
Orchestra, chorus and children’s chorus were all of the usual excellent standard. So a super Christmas treat –and perhaps something that might become a tradition as Nutcracker has become (if it is done every Christmas).
Trailer: