La Bohème was first performed at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice in May 1897. It got good notices but was not performed here until May 1970. Now it is rarely performed. This is true but I am trying to trick you. Let’s start again.
La Bohème was first performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin in February 1896 with Arturo Toscanini in the pit. It got mixed reviews but was performed in Los Angeles the following year and has gone on to become one of the most performed operas. (No 4 in a list on Operabase.)
Both versions are true. The 1896 opera in Turin was composed by Giacometti Puccini, the Venetian version by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Ruggero composed one lasting hit, Pagliacci, (No 20 on Operabase.) but he wrote about twenty more operas and operettas that are now seldom performed. However, Opera Holland Park have dusted down Zazà that premiered in 1900, again with Toscanini in the pit. I went on Thursday evening. You may have seen it at Wexford about twenty years ago.
Anne Sophie Duprels and Joel Montero in Zaza at Opera Holland Park, London.
It ticks all the boxes: good production, orchestra on form, splendid singing and acting and some really lovely music. A downpour after the interval briefly drowned out the eponymous Zazà, sung by Holland Park star Anne Sophie Duprels. The Holland Park canopy keeps the rain out but is taut as a drum and heavy rain is noisy. If it doesn’t rain the screeching peacocks provide an alternative distraction. I have had most weather-related interruptions or cancellations at open air performances in Italy. Garsington, at its original home at Garsington, did chip in one. There was cover but the rain was so heavy in the interval that the stage and pit and the wiring all got soaked. It is unfortunate that in Fidelio, Florestan only appears after the interval. He was determined to be heard and continued singing after the orchestra had given up and the production was abandoned; bravo.
I hope Opera Holland Park might consider a revival of Leoncavallo’s La Bohème? Meanwhile what’s on at the ENO? You may remember that they got a good dollop (£49 million) from Arts Council England (ACE Opera but not in Fulham) last month. When they are closed in the summer they used to hire the Coliseum to external companies like Kirov Ballet. This year they are putting on a musical called Bat Out of Hell. Whilst it may make them money it does irretrievable reputational damage putting on a tawdry musical.
Mark Lawson in The Guardian sums up my reservations.
Controversy has attended Bat Out of Hell landing in London (after road-testing in Manchester) at the Coliseum, home of English National Opera. Most have assumed that this booking represents economic desperation about a building always threatening to go from domed to doomed, but it is also possible that the Coliseum was chosen as the only venue in which Steinman’s plot would not seem preposterous or his choruses too Wagnerian.
On the other hand maybe it’s a rock opera that will enter the repertoire. I doubt it but make your mind up.