‘La Bohème’ captures preciousness of life

La Bohème" premiered to audience apathy and critical scorn in Turin, Italy, in 1896.

Then the world weighed in.

Virginia Opera's production, which opened to a sold-out Carpenter Theatre on Friday and will repeat today, demonstrates many of the reasons Giacomo Puccini's opera set in bohemian Paris scores so high on the operatic hit parade.

The orchestral sounds are ravishing. The arias are as tuneful as they are soaring. The youthful characters are endearing in their youthful foolishness. The whole is a bracing blend of comedy and underlying tragedy.

Then there's that fourth act, the so-called "deathbed scene," in which the penitent poet Rodolfo seeks to comfort the terminally consumptive seamstress Mimi on a mattress on the floor as his bohemian friends pitch in.

In the right hands, the finale of "La Bohème" is so irresistibly poignant and tender that it would make an ogre weep. It's here that Virginia Opera director Julia Pevzner comes truly into her own, making us forgive a lot of bad staging choices that went before and sending us into the night with a renewed sense of the preciousness of life.

Pevzner's fourth act is all about reconciliation in the face of death, about how youth can grow up quickly and ennoble themselves when they come face to face with their own mortality.

The complex Rodolfo and Mimi ask a lot in the early going. They ask us to believe that they can meet and declare their love in 20 minutes, for example. They ask us to believe that Rodolfo's suspiciousness of Mimi's coquettishness is well-founded when we see no evidence of it.

The glory of tenor Derek Taylor and lyric soprano Veronica Mitina lies in their ability to bind the complexities into a unified vocal line with fresh and vibrant voices. The trouble lies in their inability to act the roles convincingly. Romantic chemistry is missing. Too often, Taylor and Mitina sing past each other.

Their comic counterparts -- baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as painter Marcello and soprano Elizabeth Andrews Roberts as his spitfire sometime girlfriend, Musetta -- connect much better and produce some lively moments indeed in this vocally thrilling outing.

The supporting cast is generally strong, especially Michael Redding as musician Schaunard. Redding moves expressively and negotiates the mocking-sincerity continuum with ease. Terry Hodges makes delectable comic hay out of two subsidiary characters. Peter Marks' 32-piece pit orchestra is in fine tune, as is the 32-member chorus, including a dozen children.

Pevzner would seem to be a very conservative director, but don't be too hard on her. It's difficult to convey a compelling directorial vision when the traditional monochromatic sets used here were created for another director and the costumes are borrowed from Missouri.

That still doesn't explain why the leads don't connect more often on an acting level or why so much of the staging holds so little surprise. When Pevzner's inspiration runs low, she has the children dancing in circles for no apparent reason. Virginia Opera's "La Bohème" has some drawbacks, but its pluses are commanding indeed.