Too Old for this Game: GNO’s La Bohème

In a scene from the TV show 30 Rock, a 55-year-old Steve Buscemi dresses up like a high school student and asks, ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’.

That’s what this GNO production of La Bohème felt like. Four non-artistic old men slumming it in an attic – with a bonus of cute neighbours. This was a revival of GNO’s original 2007 Graham Vick production, which was revived again in 2017 and now in 2024. This revival was in memory of Vick, who died in 2021 from complications of COVID.

Rodolfo the writer (Ivan Magrì), Schaunard the musician (Marios Sarantidis), Marcello the painter (Nikos Kotenidis), and Colline the philosopher (Tassos Apostolou) live in what looks like a typical UK bedsit (except with extra doors for bedrooms). They’re cold, short of money, and decide to go to the town to find someone else to foot the bill. Mimì appears, Rodolfo falls in love on the spot, and off the story goes. Love, jealousy, poverty, and fortune all have their place in this tale of the struggle of poor artists.

The setting might have worked in 2007 Athens, when there were months of student rioting, burning cars and flaming trash cans, and even the Christmas tree in Syntagma Square was set alight, but doesn’t make as much sense in the here and now. In 2007, Greek National Opera was located in Akademia, the university centre where all the disturbances were originating. The four roommates represented the people on the street, the students who were causing all the disruptions. Now, that link is less direct, and it takes a note in the program book to bring that time back.

The frustration with the production comes from the liberties taken with the setting – if you have a scene that revolves around burning a manuscript, then add a fireplace to the scenery. Burning papers in front of the television seems a bit too silly for words. The Café Momus scene is clearly the highlight of the production – the scurrying waiters, the Christmas shoppers, and the children (here changed from street children to the demanding and well-dressed children of the shoppers) – and is beautifully set out.

Café Momus (at the left table: Alcindoro and Musetta; at the right tables: the four roommates and Mimì), 2024 (Greek National Opera) (Photo by Giannis Antonoglou)

The Toll Gate scene (at the Barrière d’Enfer) sets up a different ambience – this is the dangerous side of Paris, with thugs and holdups and may have been more representative of the feeling of 2007 Athens. It didn’t work because there the set didn’t really represent a toll gate, but more of a dangerous passageway to be traversed. Mimì becomes more than a needy neighbour here with the true tragedy of her future revealed.

Rodolfo (Ivan Magrì) and Mimì (Anna Sohn) at the Barrière d’Enfer, 2024 (Greek National Opera) (Photo by Giannis Antonoglou)

Mimì (Anna Sohn) was beautifully played and even more beautifully sung, making the transition between her first appearance, when she simply needed some light and her final appearance, where she is dying and seeking refuge in the only place she knows. If her first appearance is the innocence of the newly arrived, her final appearance is a weary experience.

Anna Sohn Sings Puccini’s Musetta’s Waltz

The third act scene at the Barrière d’Enfer is where she really comes into voice and, as she seeks the truth behind Rodolfo’s abandonment of her and learns the truth about her future (short, due to her consumption), we see her suddenly grow far beyond all these posing students.

Musetta (Danae Kontora) was the opposite character. Her desire for a rich lover (which never quite overrides her desire for Marcello) is beautifully played out. Her entrance in Act II, the Cafè Momus scene, was the perfect portrayal of the woman who knows what she wants (once she gets rid of this elderly admirer she’s with) and how to manipulate the men to get it. This makes her generosity in the final act that much more surprising and symbolic of how Mimì has changed everyone.

Elderly lover gone, Musetta sits on Marcello’s lap while the others deal with the bill, 2024 (Greek National Opera) (Photo by Giannis Antonoglou)

The arrival of the seriously ill Mimì to the boys’ seriously empty flat (presumably they’ve burned or sold off everything they could) sets up a moral problem for Rodolfo. Everyone comforts her…except Rodolfo. They find her pillows and a blanket for warmth while he stalks around the edges. Musetta, who has brought Mimì to the bedsit, is the one who gets the help in motion.

The dying Mimì, surrounded by everyone except Rodolfo, 2024 (Greek National Opera) (Photo by Giannis Antonoglou)

It’s only after everyone has run off to sell their coats, or get medicine, etc., that Rodolfo approaches Mimì. He’s kept the hat he bought her during the Christmas celebrations at Café Momus and amuses her with that. But, in the end, he’s not the lover she came there seeking comfort from. It’s a very odd feel.

A better sensitivity to the ages of the characters, particularly of the men, would have helped. We can forgive the young for being hedonistic, but the ages of the four roommates here just made them all seem false.

Puccini: La Bohème
Greek National Opera
21, 27, 29, 31 Dec 2024; 2, 5 Jan 2025; 14, 16, 19, 23 Mar 2025

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