We have in St. Louis one of the best regional opera companies, Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Indeed, it's not just "in St. Louis", it's in Webster Groves, my suburb, walking distance from my house. For the past couple of years I've been attending OTSL performances, one or two a year.

This year at first I thought I might get full season tickets. All four operas seemed worth a try. "The Ghosts of Versailles", by John Corigliani, is a celebrated contemporary piece (dating to 1990 or so) that is reputed to even have singable tunes (rare, one hears, in contemporary opera). "Il re Pastore" is early and minor Mozart, but it's Mozart, in the final analysis still probably my favorite "classical" composer. "Salome" is a major opera, obviously, and besides it would have Kelly Kaduce naked ... Well, that's a bad reason to want to see an opera, but hey, Kelly Kaduce is pretty attractive besides being a very fine soprano. And in all seriousness "Salome" is, salacious appeal aside, regarded as a first-rate work. And finally "La Boheme" -- one of the two or three most favorite operas of all time.

Anyway I dithered about dates and waited too long and missed the season ticket deadline. And I dithered some more, and when I looked at available tickets, all the cheap seats ($25 or $50) were gone. Mary Ann isn't really a big opera fan, so she finally said you go by yourself and we'll save some money. So I ended up buying a single $75 ticket to just one opera -- "La Boheme".

"La Boheme" is by Giacomo Puccini, who also composed "Madama Butterfly", which I saw last year. The famous contemporary musical Rent is based on "La Boheme", with some substitutions: New York for Paris, AIDS for consumption, "rock" music (or something like -- pretty good music, anyway), for "classical".

"La Boheme", as with most operas, has a very simple story. To my taste, way too simple. In the first act, we meet four young artists living in poverty in the Latin Quarter of Paris: Marcello (a painter), Colline (a philosopher), Schaunard (a musician), and Rodolfo (a playwright). They lament their poverty, going so far as to burn the manuscript of Rodolfo's lastest work for heat, then manage to outwit their landlord of the rent, and, newly flush, head out to a bar. Rodolfo stays behind, and meets a neighbor, the seamstress Mimi, and before you can say "character development -- who needs character development?" they are in love. The second act is at the bar, and here we meet the other important woman, Musetta, formerly Marcello's lover, who appears on the arm of her latest "protector", but is soon reconciled with Marcello.

Act 3 is some time later. Mimi and Rodolfo have broken up. Rodolfo at first tries to convince Marcello that he dumped her because she has been flirting with other man, but it becomes clear that he is really worried about her illness -- consumption, or tuberculosis -- and that he in his poverty can't afford to have her live in a comfortable enough home, with consistent warmth and medical treatment, so he hopes she will find a wealthier lover. But Mimi has overheard him, and the two reconcile.

In the final Act, Marcello and Rodolfo have again left their lovers. But Musetta returns, and reveals that Mimi has left her new, wealthy, lover, and is wandering the streets, close to her death. Musetta and Marcello again reconcile, and all Rodolfo's friends try to help Mimi (selling an overcoat to hire a doctor, for instance) but it is too late, and she dies shortly after meeting Rodolfo for one last time.

Well, the point of operas isn't usually the story. The point is the music. The problem for me here is that, for some reason, the music here, except at the very end, while nice enough, didn't thrill me as much as that of, say, "La Traviata" or "Madama Butterfly". For that simple reason, I have to rank "La Boheme" probably last among the operas I've seen in the past few years. Not that it was bad, really -- not at all. But I just didn't like as much as the others I saw.

I probably wasn't helped by my seat. It turns out that for $75 what I got was a front row seat. Which I really didn't want. And it was the very last seat on the rightmost edge of the stage. Now my view of the action was OK -- just fine really. And I could hear the songs beautifully. But I couldn't see the "supertitles", which I admit perhaps I shouldn't need, as all OTSL productions are in English, but you know sometimes it's hard to understand the words anyway. And really the front row is just a bit too close.

The main players: Rodolfo was Derek Taylor, Mimi was Alyson Cambridge, Marcello was Timothy Mix, Musetta was Amanda Majeski, Colline was Steven Humes, and Schaunard was Eugene Chan. (The casting was race-neutral, as with all OTSL productions as far as I can tell, and that works beautifully in my opinion.) I'm not really a great judge of singers at this level, but I thought everyone did very well.

After the opera I proved my point about the theater being in walking distance as I walked home, mainly for the exercise, but also to avoid bothering Mary Ann, or Geoff, the latter having dropped me off to avoid parking fees. It was a very hot night, so a bit uncomfortable for that reason, but an enjoyable half-hour walk otherwise.

Tags: opera