With a stellar cast and deft direction, The Dallas Opera’s ‘La bohème’ soars

PERFORMANCE REVIEW:

The Dallas Opera
February 28, March 2(m), 5, 8, 9(m), 2025
Winspear Opera House
Dallas, Texas – USA
Giacomo PUCCINI: La bohème
Emmanuel Villaume, conductor; Tomer Zvulun, director; Giacomo Puccini, composer; Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, librettists. Cast: Bekhzod Davronov (Rodolfo), Sylvia D’Eramo (Mimì), Takaoki Onishi (Marcello), Emily Pogorelc (Musetta), William Guanbo Su (Colline), Efraín Solís (Schaunard), Julien Robbins (Benoît / Alcindoro), Johnny Brown (Parpignol), Erik Danielson (Custom-house Officer), Brandon Gibson (Sergeant), Caleb Aldis (Child), David Bogaev (Prune Seller), The Dallas Opera Orchestra and Chorus, and Greater Dallas Choral Society Youth Chorus. Creative: Erhard Rom, set designer; Peter J. Hall, costume designer; Robert Wierzel, lighting designer; Paolo Bressan, chorus director; David Zimmerman, wig and make-up designer.

Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 3 MAR 2024

With a splendid production of Puccini’s three-hanky, much-adored, and ultra-romantic opera, La bohème, The Dallas Opera just hit an operatic home-run-with-the-bases-loaded. Every element required for perfection is in place – cast, concept, and consummation. On Friday evening, all these disparate elements magically came together in Dallas’ Winspear Opera House. From the orchestra’s opening blast of boisterous music to a touching death scene, the opera had us transfixed all the way to its quietly tragic final curtain.

This show, replete with its endless supply of gorgeous music and tragic love story, La bohème, always has a reserved spot on every existing “Top Ten” opera list. It can survive a lesser cast and even avant-garde directorial abuse, such as setting it on the moon or in a testosterone-soaked college town. But this production is fresh without resorting to such mannerisms and thus excels in all aspects.

The set, originally designed by Erhard Rom for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, immediately leads us to experience the difficult living circumstances endured by the four close-knit and struggling artists. Using modern stage techniques, such as projections and partial but realistic walls, Rom perfectly creates the cramped and threadbare attic garret. We also feel the sharpness of Paris’ chilling and snowy winter winds as they cut right through Peter J. Hall’s excellent costumes.

The age-appropriate and international cast is uniformly excellent. They combine gorgeous lyrical and Italianate voices with a believability that comes from subtle acting finesse and spinning carefully crafted musical phrases.

Hailing from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the handsome tenor Bekhzod Davronov brings an innocent, boyish charm to the role of Rudolfo. Upon meeting Mimi for the first time, he is immediately captured by his frail downstairs neighbor. As Mimi, Sylvia D’Eramo matches Davronov in youthful ardor, but her’s is cooled by a touch of weariness born of her difficult situation. She is a young woman with a serious illness, living alone in Paris and without adequate resources.

The other pair of lovers in the opera are the exact opposite. They are fiery, fiercely independent, and driven by passion. The role of the painter, Marcello, is created by the Tokyo-born baritone, Takaoki Onishi. The Wisconsin-born soprano Emily Pogorelc plays the spitfire and flirtatious Musetta. They are deeply in love but are like oil and water. Thus, they are either in each other’s arms or firing angry barbs back and forth.

Two other roommates are sharing the freezing attic apartment with Rodolfo and Marcello. They are the writer, Colline, portrayed by the sonorous Beijing-born bass, William Guanbo Su, and Schaunard, a musician, portrayed by baritone Efrain Solis, a California native.

One singer in the cast has double acting duties. Julien Robbins portrays Benoit, the long-suffering landlord of the poorly maintained attic where the four men live. In the second act, he plays Alcindoro, an older and wealthy gentleman who escorts the flighty Musetta.

Both are comic roles, but Robbins plays them very differently. Benoit is always outfoxed by the wily guys and easily conned when trying to collect their chronically overdue rent. Later, as Alcindoro, he is dignified, but as Musetta’s most recent prey, he is a frustrated, confused meal ticket, always stuck with her mounting bills.

In summary, the pace of the show is the able hands of Emmanuel Villaume, the Music Director of The Dallas Opera since 2013, as well as the director of the Prague Philharmonia since 2015.

Simply put, he is the best opera conductor working today.

His tempi are energetic but never rushed. His phrasing and sense of the musical architecture are impeccable. He allows the singers considerable latitude to be expressive but always keeps his tempo structure in proportion. Further, Villaume layers dynamics with an eye to the entirety required by the score, as well as the balance at any time within the ensemble. Thus, some rarely heard inner voices sound out without forcing. But, the singers are never covered, even in his carefully planned loudest moments of the score.

This is an exceptional performance of La bohème in all respects. While I do have some musical quibbles here and there, as most critics usually do, they are not even worth mentioning. So, I won’t. ■

The Dallas Opera continues its production of Puccini’s ‘La bohème’ with performances on March 5, 8 & 9, 2025, at Winspear Opera House. dallasopera.org

A crowd, including children, gathered with street merchants at Cafe Momus, Act II of ‘La bohème.’ (credit: Kyle Flubacker)

About the author:

Gregory Sullivan Isaacs is a Dallas-based composer, conductor, and journalist. He is also a coach and teacher with a private studio.

Read more by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.