Published: 05 August 2010
by JOSH LOEB

OperaUpClose is the name of the theatre company responsible for this production of La Bohème, and “up close” it definitely is – so close, in fact, that you can virtually see the sound pulsate  around you. 

In an interview with this newspaper last week, the show’s director, Robin Norton-Hale (who also wrote this fresh, new English version), pointed out that some people who had only ever seen opera in the traditional giant auditoria did not realise that opera singers don’t wear mics, and one of the most powerful things about this production is the way it reminds you of the sheer force the human voice can possess. The show has transferred to Soho from its former home, the Cock Tavern Theatre in Kilburn – an even smaller venue where it exceeded all expectations by becoming a runaway success. 

After it closes in London in September, it will tour the country. 

“Our production is about people now, and there were people who hadn’t been to the opera before who realised it could be about people like them,” Ms Norton-Hale said. “A lot of people have said it is the most truthful La Bohème they have ever seen.” 

Puccini’s story of creative types experiencing love and tragedy as they suffer for their art in a freezing garret in Paris works well transposed into Soho, where poverty has always rubbed shoulders with artistic joie de vivre. The set is well executed; the empty beer bottles crowding the kitchen work-tops and discarded copy of the Guardian suggest bourgeois-bohemian shabbiness. 

There is a rotating cast in this production, but on Press night Anthony Flaum as Rodolfo demonstrated why the critics so raved about him during the run in Kilburn. He was aided by Rosalind Coad’s demure Mimi, who moved the audience to deep emotion in the final scene. 

“The media is responsible for perpetuating this view that opera is just for a particular kind of person,” Ms Norton-Hale said  last week. 

Well, whatever kind of person you are, you will probably enjoy this show. 

Until September 4 • 020 7478 0100