{"id":37570,"date":"2016-07-05T16:51:20","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=37570"},"modified":"2016-07-09T08:25:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T12:25:35","slug":"scrutiny-munich-la-boheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/07\/05\/scrutiny-munich-la-boheme\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Letters from Munich: La boh\u00e8me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bayerische
Bayerische Staatsoper: La Boheme (Photo: Wilfried Hoesl)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sonya Yoncheva (Mimi), Julie Fuchs (Musetta), Wookyung Kim (Rodolfo), Levente Moln\u00e1r (Marcello), Andrea Borghini (Schaunard), Goran Juri\u0107 (Colline). Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Asher Fisch, conductor. National-theater, July 3,\u00a02016<\/strong><\/p>\n

O<\/span>f the five operas I am seeing on this Munich trip, there\u2019s a bit of something for everyone. You want a brand new production?\u00a0 The cutting edge La Juive<\/em> by Spanish provocateur Calixto Beieto fits the bill.\u00a0 Contemporary opera is your cup of tea? There\u2019s South Pole<\/em>, just recently premiered. For the heavy-duty star gazer, there\u2019s the Harteros-Kaufmann-Terfel Tosca<\/em>. A Wagner addict needing a fix? \u00a0The quirky Richard Jones production of Lohengrin<\/em> is just what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n

But what if you\u2019re a traditionalist feeling deprived in the Regie<\/em>-driven Bayerische Staatsoper? All is not lost. There are at least three \u201coperatic comfort food\u201d productions that are still kicking. I saw the unforgettable August Everding Die Zauberfl\u00f6te<\/em> in 1986, with the genies arriving by hot-air balloon, not to mention trials by real fire and real water. Then there\u2019s the 40+-year-old Jurgen Rose-Otto Schenk Der Rosenkavalier<\/em>, with a set full of antiques and the most elaborate costumes imaginable.<\/p>\n

The third traditional production I\u2019ve seen here is the Otto Schenk La boh\u00e8me, <\/em>a production that bears a stylistic kinship to the Zeffirelli extravaganza at the Met, an operatic comfort food nonpareil. <\/em>It\u2019s completely by the book \u2014 predictable, easy on the eyes, and non-challenging. You get a realistic garret, the obligatory Caf\u00e9 Momus scene jammed with townsfolk, the only thing missing was the muff to warm the hands of the dying Mimi in Act 4. The Munich audience, as usual, a full house, certainly loved it, as the artists were wildly cheered at the final curtain.<\/p>\n

\"Bayerische
Bayerische Staatsoper: La Boheme (Photo: Wilfried Hoesl)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cast was not particularly starry on this occasion, except for Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Mimi. Yoncheva made a splash as Desdemona at the Met last season and is slated to replace Anna Netrebko in the ROH Norma<\/em>. She was partnered by Korean tenor Wookyung Kim as Rodolfo. Trained as a young artist in Munich and is now in the Ensemble at the S\u00e4chsische Staatsoper Dresden, Kim has a beautiful, rich and good-sized lyric tenor.\u00a0 His Che gelida manina was lovely, a rather small high C notwithstanding. He also avoided the C in O soave fanciulla. Yoncheva has a truly lovely lyric soprano, backed by solid technique and used with taste. She gave a winning performance. That being said, it\u2019ll be interesting to see how she fares as Norma, a role that requires more of a spinto, even dramatic soprano voice. \u00a0If I were to nitpick, both Yoncheva and Kim didn\u2019t sing with parlando and the requisite portamento that is needed in Puccini. As a result, their Italian diction was correct but not quite idiomatic.<\/p>\n

The supporting roles were ably taken. Soprano Julie Fuchs was a saucy Musetta, and she looks every inch the coquette, although there was no diminuendo high B natural at the end of Quando m\u2019en vo, something that should be a requirement. Levente Moln\u00e1r was also a fine Marcello. In fact, other than Yoncheva, the rest of the cast were Munich Opera ensemble regulars, and it showed in their excellent rapport and stage instincts. Conducting with a sure hand was Asher Fisch, the very fine Israeli conductor, who is taking on a much tougher assignment in the fall, as one of two conductors (the other being Sir Simon Rattle) of the Met Tristan und Isolde<\/em> in September.<\/p>\n

What more can I say about this production that I haven\u2019t already said?\u00a0 I admit I am a bit of a traditionalist, someone who loved the recently retired Met Ring, the Zeffirelli Boheme<\/em> and Tosca<\/em>. But, to my own surprise, I find this Munich Boh\u00e8me<\/em> a bit ho-hum. I found myself wanting more \u2014 a new take, a quixotic twist, a brave re-imagining. \u00a0I suppose even for a traditionalist, a steady diet of comfort food can eventually become a bit, uh, too comfortable.<\/p>\n

Read Letters From Munich Part I (Tosca),\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>, and Part II (Lohengrin),\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Munich offers a bread and butter production of La boh\u00e8me with soprano Sonya Yoncheva.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,43,52],"tags":[6240,5913,3964],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/La_boheme_Yoncheva_Kim_c_W._Ho\u0308sl_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-9LY","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37570"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37615,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37570\/revisions\/37615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37570"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=37570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}