La Boheme – Puccini – Theater Basel Switzerland
Image taken from the Theater Basel website
It’s a new dawn at the Theater Basel. It’s all change in the artistic department with a new Artistic Director arriving in 2020, replacing the successful Andreas Beck. The outstanding Henriette Goetz has arrived via ENO and Munich, Kristina Poska has taken over as Music Director and was conducting her first new production in the much anticipated La Boheme, directed by the implacable Daniel Kramer.
And this time Daniel Kramer, who is a bit of a favourite at Basel, did not disappoint. He and his Stage Designer Annette Murschetz gave a different and quite fresh interpretation of this opera. Not all the ideas worked and in Kramer-esque style some of them were quite eccentric, but overall the package was interesting and well received.
Rap music started each act with graffiti spray-painted walls and directors licence given to the snow and cold, which were present only in parts. There were some small cuts in the first Act, but the Café Momus scene in the second Act was beautifully presented with a stunning Christmas tree at its core. The third Act went somewhat downhill as it opened outside a nightclub with lots of revellers and a symbolic green line, which if they crossed they did so at their peril, with a rather ominous looking bouncer ready to pounce.
There was also the usual Kramer shock piece of a huge blow up plastic penis floating across stage, but this disappeared with the revellers. The fourth Act used a broken car seat for Mimi’s death bed and some contradictions with the text such as a lack of intimacy between the artists and Colline singing to his verse as opposed to his coat etc.
That aside it was a very worthwhile effort by Kramer, supported by his singers led by the Marcello of Domen Krizaj – taken out of the chorus and singing with a beautifully crafted baritone sound full of projection.
The Rodolfo of the Italian tenor Davide Giusti was easy on the ear with a clear and fulsome top, not necessarily matched by the rather petulant Mimi of the Bucharest soprano Cristina Pasaru, whose small pretty voice never excited and in any vocal line seemed to be cut off at the pass.
The Italian mezzo soprano Valentina Mastrangelo sung a robust and enjoyable Musetta with Gurgen Baveyan’s Schaunard being represented as a guy icon – but with great hips! The Benoit/Alcindoro was sung by a much loved Alexander Vassiliev. The Conductor Kristina Poska led an outstandingly musical orchestra and chorus even if at times the orchestral output slightly overawed some of the singers.
Overall it was an evening very well received by the audience.
