Anyone expecting a few quivering bohemians in the attic at the beginning is mistaken. Because in his new production of the opera “La Bohème” by Giacomo Puccini at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, Wolfgang Nägele shows for the first time what a career leap can be expected after the tragic end of the play: “Shortly after Mimi's death, the poet Rodolfo and the artist Marcello open an exhibition that bears the name of Mimì. (...) Both of them have risen to become successful artists through this work. ”If that could be understood without this explanation of the program, then it would be difficult to understand why the celebrated gentlemen who were still in the modern gallery (stage: Stefan Mayer) gave autographs, had to burn books for heating. When the flashback starts and from whose perspective the story will be told from now on,does not reveal itself scenically.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Now the simple plot of the popular opera can be assumed to be known, but the interpretation often runs completely against the text and the music with fluctuating stylistic devices from realism to surrealism.

If, at the end of the scene, the impression arises that Rodolfo does not love Mimì at all because he turns away from the dying woman and turns to the white table, it is impossible as a listener to associate this directly with the music, Puccini's sensitive entrusted the lyric tenor voice.

If, however, one succeeds in engaging with this contrast between scene and music, one at least receives new food for thought through the unusual staging: The terminally ill Mimì would therefore only be a means to an end for the artists, a source of inspiration to create great art, to achieve success.

More like a sacrifice than a lover

The poverty of the artist posed by Puccini is excluded: Rodolfo wears a chain and ring all the time.

However, Peter Sonn does not portray a villain in the role and the contrasting directional approach does not detract from the melting of his unforced voice, which harmonizes perfectly in the duets.

Mimì seems more like a victim than a dearly beloved, at times almost like a variant of the abandoned “Madama Butterfly”.

The Korean guest soprano Soojin Moon draws great interest in this figure, both in terms of performance and singing, and who is posthumously made an object of art with X-ray images of her totally damaged lungs.

Sometimes Soojin Moon seems like a ghostly rapture in the game, like an undead, then again quite human and alive in the present.

The fact that the role doesn't fray in this way undoubtedly depends on Moon's own musical dramaturgy.

Dynamically differentiated, intonationally flawless and also sustainable in depth, it bridges the erratic concept with its further conceived lines.

The second picture, which actually shows the Christmas hustle and bustle in the Parisian Latin Quarter, is completely shifted into a dream world with the costumes (Annette Braun).

What actually connects the other couple, Musetta and Marcello (vocally sovereign and role-covering according to the director's idea: Cathrin Lange and Julian Orlishausen), is pretty much lost in the hustle and bustle of the bizarre scene.

In any case, all the strange dream creatures seem to be doing pretty well while Mimì is already on the IV.

Under the direction of General Music Director Daniel Cohen, the Darmstadt State Orchestra unfolds an exemplary light, transparent Puccini sound.

In the reduced passages and in the many small solos, the orchestra musicians seem to pay attention to each other in a chamber music way.

Next performances on October 8th and 17th and on November 11th and 20th.