ON STAGE
What: La bohème
When: Feb. 15, 17, 23, 8 p.m.; Feb. 21, 7 p.m.; Feb. 25, 2:30 p.m.
Where: Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St.
Tickets: $25-$140 through the Royal McPherson box office (250-386-6121) or online at rmts.bc.ca
Note: Pre-performance lectures take place in the theatre lobby one hour prior to each show
A classic opera does not necessarily have to be handled with a soft touch. Opera audiences have come a long way over the years and radical reinvention is not unheard of for a modern production.
However, some attention must be paid to the source material. And when that involves Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, perhaps the best-loved opera in history, it is imperative to proceed with caution.
Belgian-based director Maria Lamont, who is at the helm of Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of La bohème, which opens at the Royal Theatre tonight, appears to have the perfect approach — one that pushes the form forward, but with respect for the past.
“I don’t call myself a traditionalist — I call myself a bit of a classicist,” Lamont said.
“I like storytelling. I’m not particularly looking to shock or provoke people, but I do want to find new ways of telling these classic stories.”
Puccini’s opera about two Parisian couples living as self-styled bohemians has aged well, so little tinkering was needed, Lamont said. The Winnipeg native, who has spent long stretches of her career working alongside director (and noted Puccini specialist) Robert Carsen, has conditioned herself to be malleable, an important skill for stage directors.
Lamont has nothing but praise for her young leads in the POV production: soprano Lucia Cesaroni (Mimi), tenor Jason Slayden (Rodolfo), Sharleen Joynt (Musetta) and Brett Polegato (Marcello), with whom she came to some mutually beneficial decisions during rehearsals.
“We rehearsed the ending and it didn’t work at all [as] what I had planned, so we changed it,” she said.
“If you have enough experience in theatre, you wait for the happy accidents. The happy accidents actually make things better. If you use that as an opportunity to find a new solution, to be creative, you can get something much better.”
Perspective is everything when it comes to mounting a Puccini production, Lamont said.
His signature operas — including La bohème (written in 1896), Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904) — have become famous to the point of near-saturation, so audiences do not want to sit through a staid retelling. In 2018, fans like their Puccini shaken, not stirred.
“These operas . . . come with a lot of traditions,” Lamont said.
“Society’s values and sympathies change so much, so you need to look at those old stories with a new viewpoint. All the rules have been broken. Everything has been done.
“There has been so much experimenting in theatre over the last 50 or 60 years, it’s a new challenge to present the story in interesting and engaging ways. The tension you create with the audience, that’s my goal — to create that mystery between the stage and the public.”
What Lamont loves about Puccini’s masterwork is his ability to capture young adulthood, where meaningful relationships and matters of the heart have a unique tone and context.
Had the characters come across each other years later, the ties that bind Mimì and Rodolfo, for example, would have taken on a different meaning. The specificity of its physical and emotional settings are the key to La bohème’s success.
Audiences members have felt the same lovelorn gravity at some point during their youth. They also have felt the violent sting of an untimely death, with which La bohème deals compassionately.
“It’s a story about young people,” Lamont said. “For the older members of the audience, they are trying to find those feelings again. For the younger people, they can identify with the experience. When I listen to it now, with a little more life experience, I think a lot about loss and death. This is a very moving and touching treatment of that.”
In her role as director, Lamont chose to focus on universality, how the human condition of the late 1800s compares with that of today. She built her vision for the half-comedy, half-tragedy upon a strong musical base, which, for this production, will see conductor Giuseppe Pietraroia lead the Victoria Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria Chorus and Victoria Children’s Choir.
“I had a very wonderful teacher who said it’s very difficult to write in opera: ‘Pass the potatoes.’ It’s not really about the beautiful, small details in life, it’s all about the grand themes. It can be very simple text, and when that is set by a genius, like Puccini, to an incredible melody, the payoff is the motherlode.”
Lamont, who is joined on the creative team by designer Camellia Koo, lighting designer Kevin Lamotte and choreographer Jessica Hickman, feels immensely proud of what they have accomplished.
It’s challenging, but not overly so, she said. “As long as you treat the main themes with a certain amount of respect, I don’t think the audience will hold it against you.
“The visual world is really important, too. If they are engrossed in the visual world, and the dynamic between performers, they’ll go with you a long way.”
