Opera: Coenraad Visser
THE PROBLEMS with Pact Opera’s revival of Puccini’s=20 treasured masterpiece La Boheme start in the pit, where=20 Gert Meditz’s moribund and clumsy conducting shows scant=20 regard for Puccini’s soaring lyrical lines. Nor does he=20 seem to realise that there are two sets of lovers involved,=20 to portray two different types of love, each with its own=20 distinctive music.
One has to pity the singers. They are stretched on the rack=20 by the conductor’s ponderous tempi, only to be taken by=20 surprise by some inexplicable accelerations often in mid-
To add to the woes, George Kok’s production, again, often=20 makes no sense at all. Why do the two captivated lovers end=20 the first act by singing to one another through a wall? Why=20 are the Bohemians in Act II stuck on a balcony where they=20 cannot be heard or seen? Why do Musetta and Alcindoro sit=20 down to Christmas dinner in the middle of a road in Paris,=20 in the snow?
Full marks, though, to the Pact chorus and the children’s=20 choir, superbly trained by Rachelle Jonck. Both sang with a=20 sureness of style and pitch that evaded most of the other=20
Of the singers, only Sally Gain (Musetta), Dawie Couzyn=20 (Alcindoro and Benoit) and Evgenij Demerdjiev (Marcello)=20 acquit themselves with any distinction. Gain is marvelous,=20 a delightful temptress in her waltz song, and a tender=20 friend to Mimi. Couzyn simply draws on his vast experience=20 in the theatre. Demerdjiev is a true stylist, and sings and=20 looks the part.
Mauri Mostert makes her big debut here as Mimi, perhaps an=20 unfortunate choice of role for this young singer.=20 Dramatically she is most affecting, especially in the last=20 two acts, crowned by a moving dying scene. But her voice,=20 with its fatally sharp edges and tendency to shrillness=20 under pressure in the upper register, does not have the=20 limpid and seductive tones required for Puccini’s=20 consumptive heroine.
Jose Azocar (Rudolfo) approaches his big moments with gusto=20 and certainly shows no fear of the taxing top notes. Still,=20 his voice is rather colourless and lacks the ring and=20 myriad tinges and textures to succeed in this repertoire.=20 Dramatically he is a staunch member of the act-by-numbers=20 school. In this department he is totally overshadowed by=20 the involved Mostert, who has the unenviable task of trying=20 to interact with a piece of wood.
Of the other Bohemians Rouel Beukes (Colline) was as=20 reliable as ever, unlike Pierre du Toit (Schaunard) who=20 barked and snarled his way through the evening.
All in all, this is not a production that does many people=20
La Boheme runs at the Opera, State Theatre, Pretoria, unil=20 May 30