Carpers will be quick to point out that the director has been doing variations of "Bohème" for nigh 20 years now. It is the finest "Bohème" production this critic ever hopes to see, absolutely right for a house this size and scope. The Bohemians' garret is a cutaway attic, quite literally set on the stage rooftops of Paris, complete with tiles, smoking chimney pots - a cramped, impoverished abode for the quartet this story inhabits. Figures on it are blurred by the misty-snowy atmosphere (thanks to an effective scrim), yet the playing center gives the principals plenty of room to retain focus down front, while framed by a breathtakingly beautiful tableau. Here, the street leading to the Parisian gate sweeps down, ramplike, from audience left to right. In Act III, the inn is a small ramshackle affair in the lower right-hand corner of another massive but stunning set. And the rest of the production is equally magnificent. By the end of the act, the audience had interrupted three more times with applause for the Zeffirelli spectacle - which culminated in a huge parade, bringing some 240 people on the Met stage.įor those who think it too busy and overblown, imagine a Paris at Christmas with a mere handful of people on stage! The "confusion" Zeffirelli creates is masterfully controlled. A huge staircase is on the audience's left, the chorus milling around above the indoor Momus, and there is another large staircase in the back right-hand corner of the set. The set is on three levels, with the Café Momus on the "ground" level receding back under the set. Rarely has the Met stage been more brilliantly used. Stage designer-director Zeffirelli has quite literally recreated a typical Montmartre hill street in Paris, circa 1840. When the curtain rose on the second act of Franco Zeffirelli's new production of "La Bohème" at the Metropolitan Opera, the audience erupted in a roar of acclaim, amazement, and even disbelief - a roar that went on for nearly a minute. La Bohème received twenty performances this season. īenefit sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild
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