✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Opera

La Bohème, English National Opera 2022 review ★★★★★

31 Jan 22 – 27 Feb 22, 13 performances, nine at 7:30PM and four at 2:30PM. Running time 2hr 15min including one interval

An exciting house debut is an extra treat in a hugely entertaining revival of Jonathan Miller's production of Puccini's opera

By Claudia Pritchard on 3/2/2022

Christmas Eve at the Café Momus. Photo: Genevieve Girling
Christmas Eve at the Café Momus. Photo: Genevieve Girling
La Bohème, English National Opera 2022 review 4 La Bohème, English National Opera 2022 review Claudia Pritchard
The bedsit is freezing, there's nothing to eat, precious little work, the rent is overdue and there's a nasty disease in the air. That's life for plenty of Britons in 2022. And also for the just-about-managing characters of Puccini's La Bohème. But their poverty comes in two forms.


On the one hand there's the genteel, playful poverty of intellectuals playing at pennilessness, one at least waiting for his inheritance. And there's the genuine near-destitution of seamstress Mimì, whose only prospect of levelling up is a man with money.


Would the late, left-wing director Jonathan Miller, devising his delectable English National Opera production of La Bohème the year before an austerity government came to power in 2010, have gone about it in the same way in 2022? Poverty is not quite as picturesque these days. Nonetheless, this is a brilliant staging, set in Paris in the 1930s, with no intimation of international trouble ahead, and a feast for the eye and ear.



David Junghoon Kim as Rodolfo and Sinéad Campbell-Wallace as Mimì. Photo: Genevieve Girling


In its hugely affecting, Drive and Live open-air La Bohème at Alexandra Palace in the summer of 2020, directed by PJ Harris, the poor were really poor, living in trailers. Miller's hard-up youngsters fare better, with moonlit attic lodgings and the go-to Café Momus on hand. One Drive and Live poet Rodolfo, tenor David Junghoon Kim, returns to the role at the Coliseum, gleefully roistering with his flatmates, and stricken both by his own failings and by the mortal illness of his lover Mimì.


And what a revelation this Mimì is – Sinéad Campbell-Wallace makes her ENO debut, and we are sure to see and hear more of her. Elsewhere, she already as Puccini's Tosca under her belt, and Tchaikovsky's Tatyana in Eugene Onegin lies ahead. It's easy to see why, as she conveys in Mimì both fragility and the gleam in her radiant top notes of a glimpse at a brighter horizon. Remember her name.


Mimì and Rodolfo meet by chance, when in her adjoining lodgings her candle blows out. Their instant attraction is tested by time and jealousy, until a heart-wrenching turn in their story. On the way to a searing parting, we meet Rodolfo's flatmates: Samoan baritone Benson Wilson as jokey musician Schaunard, bass William Thomas, bidding a soulful farewell to his overcoat when money is needed for ailing Mimì, and Charles Rice's painter Marcello, exasperated by on-off girlfriend Musetta. The late Amanda Holden's sparky translation is everyone's best friend.



Louise Alder's Musetta rules the roost. Photo: Genevieve Girling


As Musetta, there is luxury casting in the form of soprano Louise Alder, whose vivacity is matched by her vocal technique, every note subtly coloured. Simon Butteriss is as hilarious as ever as the easily flattered landlord, and Musetta's sugar daddy.


On stage the colour palette in Isabella Bywater's set and costume designs favours greys, the brightness coming from the Act One high jinks, and Act Two street and restaurant scenes. When the snow falls, no one has enough clothes on; the urge to pass cashmere wraps up to the stage becomes overwhelming.


Also making his house debut, conductor Ben Glassberg sets off at a gallop with the ENO orchestra, the clatter of hooves in this thrilling chase through Puccini's rangy score occasionally overpowering the soloists.


Miller's production has been a reliable favourite in the repertory at the Coliseum, and may well go on and on. But one day, a director from a new generation is going to look at this story anew, and good luck to them. In the meantime, catch this classic while you can. Maybe take a newcomer to opera. They'll be hooked.


La Bohème is sung in English with English surtitles. Further performances are on 4, 10, 12, 19, 23, 25 and 27 Feb at 7:30PM, and on 5, 12, 19, 27 Feb at 2:30PM
by Claudia Pritchard

What La Bohème, English National Opera 2022 review
Where English National Opera, London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES | MAP
Nearest tube Embankment (underground)
When 31 Jan 22 – 27 Feb 22, 13 performances, nine at 7:30PM and four at 2:30PM. Running time 2hr 15min including one interval
Price £10-£160
Website Click here for more information and booking



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 24–26 March. Photo: The Parakeet, Kentish Town
Things to do in London this weekend: 24–26 March
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London

Editor's Picks

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason gives two concerts on 26 Feb
Best concerts and opera in February
Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra, who play from memory. Mark Allan
Classical and Opera 2022: London highlights ahead
The Cunning Little Vixen was a highlight of Opera Holland Park 2021. Photo: Ali Wright
Opera Holland Park 2022
English National Opera's Breathe project, with Alexandra Oomens. A big new season lies ahead. Photo: Karla Gowlett
English National Opera 2021/22: from Mozart to Margaret Atwood
The Sixteen, one of the many choirs singing in Voices Unwrapped. Photo: Arnaud Stephenson
Voices Unwrapped, Kings Place
Theodora (Julia Bullock) is humiliated for her faith. Photo: Camilla Greenwell
Theodora, Royal Opera House review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Henrietta Hotel and Restaurant

    Michelin-starred chef Ollie Dabbous has teamed up with luxury hospitality specialists The Experimental Group to open a modern British bistro within a boutique Covent Garden hotel.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Frenchie

    Restaurant and wine bar Frenchie has been credited with redesigning the Parisian way of eating. Its simple, generous yet precise dishes are heavily influenced by chef cum owner Gregory Marchand's classical training in Nantes.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Cora Pearl

    Cora Pearl, the second restaurant from the team behind Kitty Fisher's, takes its name from the infamous 19th-century French courtesan. The menu, consisting of both French and British influenced cuisine, is deceptively simple, with cheese and ham toasties, fish stew, and chocolate ganache on offer.

    Read more...
    Book Map

English National Opera

Puccini

Sinéad Campbell-Wallace

Book now


  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×