La Bohème – Alhambra Theatre, Bradford

Director: Ellen Kent

Conductor: Vasyl Vasylenko

La Boheme has been described as entry level opera, with characters and a narrative by Puccini that was inspired by Henri Murger’s stories or scenes of ‘La Vie de Boheme’. It is a format and story that has been copied and enhanced over the years, inspiring the film Moulin Rouge and the musical Rent amongst others. It has the potential to be transported to any timeframe and has an infinite number of possibilities for character tropes and locations that could be offered up – after all the original opera is set in Paris but is sung in Italian.

Here, Ellen Kent brings a traditional version of the classic piece, which in this instance means that we are in 1890s Paris, and a group of poor struggling artists are sharing a draughty attic studio. At its heart is the love story between the poet Rodolfo and the fragile seamstress Mimì. Their romance blossoms (very) quickly but is ultimately doomed by poverty and illness. The opera intends to capture the highs and lows of youthful passion, friendship, and heartbreak, all set against a backdrop of stirring music and raw emotion. In theory it is a timeless tale of love and loss that continues to resonate with modern audiences.

And while the excellent quality of both the singing and the orchestra could not be faulted, the production lacked something throughout. The performers spent much of the time singing out to the audience and/or looking at the conductor rather than connecting with each other, so it was difficult to feel a genuine sense of emotion between some of them, in particular Rodolfo (Hovhannes Andreasyan) and Mimi (Elena Dee). It picked up whenever Musetta (Viktoriia Melnyk) and Marcello (Iurie Gisca) were on stage, but for the most part it lacked polish in terms of general staging and ‘business’ on stage. It was also quite slow paced, feeling like it needed some energy injecting into it.

There was a lot going on set-wise for a touring production, especially one that has three different shows on three different nights at almost each and every venue it goes to. But it was quantity over quality. The set for the attic scene was more akin to a pantomime, with the roof tops and houses that could be seen out of the attic windows looking for all the world as though Widow Twankey may step out of one of them. The scene change between Act One and Act Two was achingly long, so much so that a few people got up to go out clearly thinking that this must be the first of the two intervals.

Act Three had an assortment of different elements of set, with some Bonsai like trees in front of what could have been the foundations of the Eiffel tower and a snow machine that rather pathetically snowed for three quarters of the scene on two thirds of the stage.

In Act Four, back in the attic, Marcello paints a picture of a semi-clad model, though the model is sat the wrong way round for the painting that he is apparently creating, and it strangely is exactly the same painting as one placed on the floor just along from it. This lack of attention to detail seems to permeate through the whole show. There is a terrible wig, a seemingly plastic orange hammer that comes out of the toymaker’s box, and a photographer going round wildly taking photos that seemed to magically take seconds to snap on a handheld camera.

Scenes were generally undertaken too far back on stage, and with the orchestra in the pit in front, the whole cast could have done with moving forward three or four feet so that the action was closer to the audience. Surtitles were placed neck craningly high at the top of the stage, despite there also being LED screens at the side that lay dormant. This meant that it was impossible to see the action in conjunction with the surtitles, so a choice needed to be made whether to understand what was going on, or actually see the action itself.

While it was not entirely clear from the programme who the adult chorus were or where they were from, the production ended with a quite emotional rendition of the Ukranian national anthem, complete with flags and everyone standing with hand on heart in solidarity, so it appears that they may have come from the Ukranian Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kyiv. This was fantastic to see, but in all honesty had more authenticity and feeling than the rest of the production.

If you close your eyes and just listen to this, you will not be disappointed. If you are wanting to see high quality visuals, this may be one to skip.

Reviewed on 15th April 2025