Profile reviews
1In the “military” variation, piccolo and other winds were a bit behind the drums, but tenor Ed Lyon sang out crisply and with gusto. In the solo ensembles, soprano Lucy Crowe floated her curly phrases and high notes sweetly, the personification of benevolent Freude, while contralto Jess Dandy added just the right note of creamy richness to the sound. In an inspired move, a trombonist stepped out of the orchestra to join the male choristers, adding Gabriel’s horn to their mighty injunction “Seid umschlungen, Millionen.”
Past Production Reviews
3Richard Jones’ production revived with warmth, elegance and added resonance
Café Momus on Christmas Eve is clearly suffering from a waiter shortage; fewer customers too, plus a shrunken crowd milling outside. Otherwise, there are fewer changes than you might expect in Dan Dooner’s Covid-conscious, socially distanced edition of Richard Jones’s 2017 production of Puccini’s masterpiece. The snow continues to drift from the heavens, and the bohemians’ Paris garret hasn’t got any warmer. More to the point for this story of sudden love, poverty and cruel death, the characters still intermingle, embrace, and, in the case of Musetta, bite. Meanwhile, down in the pit, an orchestra of 74 has been stripped down to 47, armed with Mario Parenti’s reduced orchestration. Yet despite much lighter forces, Puccini remains Puccini.
