La Boheme
Welsh National Opera, Cardiff Bay

A RAVISHING production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme produces an evening of brevity, beauty and balance courtesy of Welsh National Opera.

This perennial favourite of the Italian maestro never fails with its winning combination of Puccini’s sublime music and the tale of poverty and love in a freezing Paris.

Apart from the fantastic music and singing, the fact that this is one of the shorter operas, at about two hours, is one of the reasons it is recommended to novices to this most ridiculous of art forms.

The balance between the set created by Cardiff Theatrical Services and the clever use of overlain filming beautifully captures the look and feel of a snowy Paris skyline.

Anush Hovhannisyan is Mimi, the impoverished and unwell seamstress, who knocks on Rodolpho’s (sung here by Luis Gomes) door to set off the tragic love story.

In one of opera’s most famous arias, Gomes gamely tries to be heard above the orchestra as he tells Mimi her tiny hand is frozen.

But Hovhannisyan’s ravishing voice has no such trouble in soaring above the music as she sings of her love for the hard-up student.

Both singers acting skills make for a believable opening love scene. Gomes’s small gesture as he finds Mimi’s door key in the dark without telling her so he can keep her with him for longer is lovely.

But Haegee Lee almost steals the plaudits with her vivacious and captivating Musetta as she brings Rodion Pogossov’s Marcello back under her beguiling spell at the Cafe Momus.

The third act is the bridge between the tender opening love scenes and Mimi and Rodolpho’s break-up. Mimi tells Marcello of Rodolpho’s jealous rages, and, in turn, her lover confides to his friend that he is scared of her illness.

This sets up the final part of the tragedy as a dying Mimi is brought back to her lover’s apartment. The hardest heart cannot fail to be moved by the tragic death through poverty of a young woman.

The final words of the opera are sung by Rodolpho and he calls out his lover’s name twice as he realises she has died. But that underpowered voice fails to do justice to the emotional drama of the moment.

But it is the beauty of Puccini’s music and the soaring arias that are the stars and are brought to vivid life under the baton of debutant conductor Pietro Rizzo.

In Cardiff and on tour until December 3 2022. Details at wno.org.uk.