La bohème must be the most widely treated of all opera stories (closely followed by Traviata) – Baz Luhrman, Rent and this. Music Theatre London have, over the years, created some memorable modern versions of well-known operas. Their approach is bold – idiomatic English versions which set out to ‘demystify opera by creating productions which use actor-singers’, and could easily fall flat on its face but for the total commitment of writer and director Tony Britten. Although some might baulk at ‘I’m so cold my balls are microscopic’, Britten’s knowledge of his subject runs deep and he has never opted for glib ‘clever’ updating, but rather reworkings which don’t trample on the music, and, in fact, do much to reveal Puccini’s dramatic mastery. The comedy is genuinely funny, the action gritty – filmed on location in a Deptford derelict building – and there’s even Nigel Planer as Benoit. Act III is set in the streets of a south-London suburb that Marcello and Musetta have moved to, and Mini’s death from heroin addiction is subtly handled and not overplayed – the ‘medicine’ Musetta pawns her earrings for is heroin, and that’s really when we realise what her affliction is. Mary Lincoln as Mimi is not quite as convincing as the other characters and vocally rather pinched and weak; Graham Mackay-Bruce is engagingly sweet and romantic as Rodolfo; Darryl Knock as Marcello and Maria Kesselman as Musetta make a very well-matched pair.
