La Bohème Review – Contemporary boutique Puccini travels to gentrified Hackney with a good sound | film

TFilm director Robin Norton Hill channels her freewheeling stage adaptation of Puccini’s opera to mostly good results. This version of La Bohème, set in modern East London, makes brilliant use of the camera to create a sense of intimacy and naturalness that is very user-friendly for viewers unfamiliar with opera and its ways. Keep in mind that any novice would still have to overcome the basic weirdness of the lyrical dialogue, a non-negotiable convention of the format that feels even stranger when the actors shout the lines in a classical manner while wearing jeans and T-shirts, use slang and curse words, and mention things like Strictly Ballroom in the English script that Norton-Hill wrote herself (it won an Olivier Award for the theatrical version). Ironically, Norton Hill’s version is more faithful to Puccini’s original 1890s work and yet seems less dated than Rent, the 1990s musical-theatrical version set among artists of New York’s Lower East Side.

After some montage meandering around Hackney’s Broadway Market, the action settles into an apartment that’s less harsh than it might be given how poor these people are supposed to be. Would-be novelist Rodolfo (Matthew McKinney) is hanging out with his roommate, painter Marcello (Benson Wilson); They are soon joined by their rowdy friends Shaunard (Mark Nathan) and Colin (Edward Joel) on their way to the pub. However, Rodolfo stays behind and meets his neighbor Mimi (Lucy Hall), a beautiful if noticeably shabby cleaning lady, who makes crochet flowers in her spare time and carries a bad cough along the way a lady in the West might cling to a Chihuahua. Later, at the bar, we meet the vampire Musetta (Giulia Marico), who catches Marcello’s attention, and the production sets up the philosophy of living fast, dying young and rampant sexual jealousy that are the main themes of the opera.

Arguably less effective is the image of Hackney itself, which seems very wholesome and predominantly white, with a culture that still revolves around the pub as if the smoking ban never happened. You can’t help but wonder if Rodolfo and Marcello have trust funds that allow them to afford to dig in this aristocratic neighborhood, and what exactly is the cause of Mimi’s cough, which has major consequences for the story.