OPERA REVIEW
Opera Theatre excels in 'La Bohème'
By Gregory Shepherd
Advertiser Classical Music Critic
Hawaii Opera Theatre finishes up its 2003 season with a uniformly excellent production of one of the favorites of the repertoire, Puccini's "La Bohème."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
The talented cast of singing actors brought high vocal and dramatic skills to Friday's performance, and their efforts were aided greatly by Henry Akina's inspired stage direction.
Mimi, a seamstress in Puccini's "La Bohème" played by Juliana Rambaldi, falls in love with Rodolfo, a poet played by Jay Hunter Morris in the Hawaii Opera Theatre season's final production.
Set in early 19th-century Paris, the plot revolves around the on-again, off-again love affair between the sickly seamstress, Mimi, and Rodolfo, a starving poet. Wracked with jealousy over what he imagines to be Mimi's flirtations, Rodolfo seeks to end the affair but his heart cannot let go.
In a subplot, Marcello, Rodolfo's painter friend, carries on his own relationship — no less tempestuous but more comic — with the libertine, Musetta.
Although a bit too sturdy-looking and buff for someone supposedly dying of TB, soprano Juliana Rambaldi brought a ringing tone and just the right amount of pathos to the part of Mimi, while Jay Hunter Morris did excellent work as Rodolfo.
Morris' high notes have an occasionally strident nasal quality, but the passion of his acting make for a fully formed character.
With a rich and colorful baritone, Quinn Kelsey does fine vocal and dramatic work as Marcello, the painter, while Alison England is the very embodiment of Musetta, the wild and crazy woman he loves. Her "Quando m'en vo" aria of the second act was the vocal highlight on Friday.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Rodolfo and Marcello share their frat house of a garret with Schaunard, a musician, and Colline, a philosopher, played respectively by James Scott Sikon and Wilbur Pauley. Both men do good work in their individual characterizations and in the way they interact with the others on stage.
Julius Dae-Sung Ahn as the toy seller Parpignol waves to the crowd as he performs at the end of a parade in Puccini's "La Bohème."
John Mount had a fine night serving double duty as Benoit and Alcindoro, and Julius Dae-Sung Ahn had a nice turn as Parpignol, the toy vendor.
The HOT Chorus moved about the stage skillfully and had a blended sound throughout.
Jorg Pitschmann brought full sonorities out of the Honolulu Symphony without overpowering the singing, while Peter Dean Beck's scenery and lighting design were both pleasing to the eye and conducive to effective staging.
Henry Akina, HOT general and artistic director, works his usual magic with the stage direction, particularly in the way he uses the multi-leveled set to symbolize layers of meaning and points of contrast. One only wishes that he had the time to direct more of the company's productions.
Gregory Shepherd has been The Advertiser's classical music critic since 1987.
