United States Puccini, La bohème: Soloists, Metropolitan Opera Refrain & Orchestra / Ramón Tebar (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 27.9.2026. (RP)
The Metropolitan Opera had a giant week. The season opened with Verdi’s Macbeth, starring Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen and marking Louisa Proske’s Met debut as director. New Yorkers know her for her work at Heartbeat Opera, an indie opera firm that reimagines the classics. Traditionalists rapidly put away their pitchforks: the manufacturing spanned the centuries, however it was rooted in custom.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani then introduced ‘Opera for All’ in a video filmed on the Met’s stage with the solid of La bohème. Below the partnership, the Met will launch 10,000 free tickets a month within the 2026-27 season, about 70,000 in all. Any New Yorker who has not purchased a Met ticket since 2019 can enter the lottery, and the Met has dedicated to persevering with this system in future seasons.
Subsequent, Freddie De Tommaso got here to the rescue, stepping in for an ailing Stephen Costello as Rodolfo in La bohème on September 25 and 27. He was additionally singing Macduff in Macbeth this week, but Rodolfo was an ideal match: he partnered Juliana Grigoryan’s Mimì within the Franco Zeffirelli manufacturing final season.
The beloved manufacturing, seen greater than 500 occasions since its 1981 debut, has been refurbished due to the generosity of Met supporter C. Graham Berwind III. The loving care reveals most of the monumental set’s long-obscured particulars and ensures it will likely be match for years to come back. And, thank heavens, the purple flowers within the Act IV pots are fewer and extra refined than earlier than.
Lastly, regardless of a uncommon September nor’easter barreling up the East Coast, the home was full for what was something however simply one other efficiency of the Puccini favourite. After every week like this one, the Met’s season is off to a begin that might be exhausting to high.
As for the Sunday matinee, Juliana Grigoryan is the epitome of Mimì – slight, pale and coughing – but radiantly stunning and coy. From her first knock at Rodolfo’s door, her darkish eyes and beaming smile draw you in and don’t let go, and neither does her voice. In ‘Sì, mi chiamano Mimì’, she spins lengthy, hovering phrases that present the evenness and richness of her soprano throughout the vary. She surprises by singing of springtime in virtually a whisper reasonably than letting the phrase bloom, as if the depth of her emotions took Mimì abruptly.
The Act I duet with Rodolfo revealed the total heat of her voice, as did the second in Act III when the lovers agreed to remain collectively till springtime. This time, nevertheless, the heat had an autumnal glow. Within the closing scene, Grigoryan’s Mimì entered bodily depleted, her voice bleached of coloration. An echo of that earlier fullness returned when she and Rodolfo relived the previous, made richer nonetheless by her understanding there could be no future.
De Tommaso was not solely in splendid voice however, for all his bonhomie, proved an exceptionally delicate poet too. The opening scene pulsed with pleasure as he and Hansung Yoo’s Marcello complained of the chilly and burned the pages of Rodolfo’s drama to maintain heat. They made a terrific crew, with Yoo matching De Tommaso in decibels and within the freedom with which they sang.
The tenor’s sensitivity confirmed not solely within the sweetness of his singing but additionally in his finesse when partnering Grigoryan. With out dropping depth or the visceral influence of his sound, he scaled his voice completely to hers. In ‘Che gelida manina’, De Tommaso would sing an expansive, ringing phrase, then shock with a teasing apart. As Mimì lay dying, he revealed Rodolfo’s vulnerability via restraint, making his virtually strangled cries of ‘Mimì!’ doubly potent.
Yoo’s strong baritone captured the extremes of emotion that Musetta’s tempestuousness stirs in Marcello, and his generosity of spirit spilled over to the opposite two bohemians. Le Bu’s Colline was no head-in-the-clouds thinker however a high-spirited one, and the facility and depth of his voice rang out within the 4 males’s horseplay. That sunny disposition made Colline’s farewell to his overcoat all of the extra poignant. Bu’s heat prolonged to Gihoon Kim’s Schaunard, whom he handled like a youthful brother. Kim’s voice had the presence to face as much as the opposite three, and his enthusiastic dancing drew laughs.
Rosa Feola sparkled as Musetta, eschewing histrionics for teasing within the Café Momus scene. Her charisma and sensuality have been catnip for each man on the stage, particularly Yoo’s Marcello. Feola imbued Musetta’s Waltz with glee and glamour whereas her voice flared in her fiery exchanges with Marcello. The fervent prayer for Mimì in Act IV revealed one other aspect of this Musetta.
Ramón Tebar is making his Met debut with this run of La bohème. The Spanish conductor was a keen participant within the 4 bohemians’ excessive jinks, however in a flash he would pull the rug out from below them with a phrase so wistful and exquisite that it took your breath away. As did the string enjoying in Act IV, particularly the violins, which was pure and excellent in sound and sentiment. The orchestra and refrain have been at their formidable finest, seeming to embrace Tebar with as a lot heat because the viewers did.
The check of any La bohème is whether or not it brings a tear to your eye. This one did.
Rick Perdian
Featured Picture: Rosa Feola (centre entrance, Musetta) in La bohème Act II © Jennifer Taylor/Met Opera
Manufacturing:
Manufacturing & Units – Franco Zeffirelli
Revival director – Bruno Baker
Costumes – Peter J. Corridor
Lighting – Gil Wechsler
Refrain director – Tilman Michael
Solid:
Mimì – Juliana Grigoryan
Rodolfo – Freddie De Tommaso
Marcello – Hansung Yoo
Colline – Le Bu
Musetta – Rosa Feola
Schaunard – Gihoon Kim
Parpignol – Gregory Warren
Benoît / Alcindoro – Donald Maxwell
