Fitting Choice Uptown Opera’s Pleasing Production Of ‘La Boheme’ Matches Celebration Of Company’s 10th Year

Uptown Opera’s “La Boheme” Saturday, Sept. 7, The Met

Uptown Opera celebrated the end of its tenth season Friday with the first of a series of performances at The Met.

Bill Graham and Marjory Halvorson, the company’s artistic directors, could not have picked a better choice for the festivities than Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme,” probably the most popular opera ever written and one that has just celebrated its own 100th anniversary.

Uptown’s singers, instrumentalists and production team responded to the occasion with a production that served Puccini well in “La Boheme’s” unique mixture of comedy and pathos.

The two performances I saw Friday and Saturday were pleasures for the ear and for the eye, real causes for celebration.

The cast was headed by soprano Cynthia Kirkman in the role of Mimi and tenor Paul Mueller, singing the role of her lover, Rodolfo. Both have excellent voices and good diction that fill with ease The Met.

Other major roles were skillfully performed by John Cooper as Marcello, Julie Mark as Musetta, Paul Linnes as Colline and Reginald Unterseher as Schunard.

Cooper’s acting was a special pleasure to watch. Mark caught perfectly the character of the brazen Musetta’s on-again, off-again relationship with Marcello, as well as her sensitive side when Mimi lies dying in Act IV.

The Act II scene at the Cafe Momus was impressively crowded with noisy revelers and children in a way that balanced the intimacy of the opera’s other three acts.

Was Uptown’s the perfect “Boheme”? No.

The steadily full-voiced singing of Kirkman and Mueller undercut some of the tenderness near the end of Mimi’s and Rodolfo’s first meeting in Act I and again in Act III when the lovers prepare to part. Puccini was notably specific when he wanted delicately soft singing.

Kirkman, despite some fits of coughing, never seemed able to convey Mimi’s consumptive frailty, even on her deathbed.

Minor quibbles include Rodolfo’s intently reading a book in the opening scene but telling Marcello that he is staring out the window at the smoking chimneys of Paris just as Puccini’s stage directions ask. The point is: Their chimney is not smoking because their stove is stone cold.

In Act III, Marcello tells Mimi that he is being given free rent at the tavern for painting “these murals” and points to a conspicuously blank wall.

But there were wonderful compensating touches, as well.

The Act IV duel between Colline and Schunard fought with a baguette and a fireplace brush was one amusing touch. And the sight of Musetta leading an elegantly groomed poodle (an excellently behaved member of the cast, by the way) was yet another.

The performance was conducted by James Schoepflin leading a 12-member ensemble playing a chamber music version of Puccini’s symphonically large scoring prepared by Stefan Kozinski.

George Caldwell’s impressive two-level set showing the bohemians’ garret above the Cafe Momus eased the speedy transition from Act I to II. Sherry Schmidt’s costumes set off each character effectively (I especially liked the glaring pink of Musetta’s gown).

Like other Uptown Opera productions, the company’s “La Boheme” was sung in English. The translation used was by Ruth and Thomas Martin.

This version is now nearly 50 years old, but it is still singably serviceable, though it lacks the flowing verbal lyricism of Giuseppi Giacosa’s and Luigi Illica’s Italian original.

I can cavil about this or that loose detail or minor shortcoming. But the fact remains, Spokane has its very own opera company.

Uptown Opera has grown steadily more impressive during its 10-year history. The company has produced highly enjoyable performances of such standards as “La Boheme” and “The Marriage of Figaro” along with unusual fare like Massenet’s “Cinderella” and challenging musical comedies such as “Sweeney Todd.”

A toast to Uptown Opera on its 10th anniversary and best wishes for many more years of continuing artistic and financial health.

, DataTimes MEMO: Uptown Opera’s performances of “La Boheme” continue Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. All performances are at The Met. Tickets are available at G&B outlets, 325-SEAT.