Stefan Herheim's La boheme on DVD: A Review Portfolio
2013; Oxford University Press; Volume: 29; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/oq/kbt017
ISSN1476-2870
Autores Tópico(s)Diverse Musicological Studies
ResumoIt's not surprising that a journal devoted to the performance, history, and theory of opera should single out Stefan Herheim's Oslo La bohème. Made available to a global audience thanks to its recent release on DVD, this is a production that reconsiders not only the opera's plot but its reception and indeed the very theory and practice of staging works from the operatic canon. Besides relaying the opera's well-known romantic plot and voicing in a sincere and complex way every Rodolfo's fear of losing his beloved Lucia/Mimì to death, this La bohème is also a staged reflection on opera as a medium. As it turns out, though, this question of mediality will be further problematized, and in seemingly unintended ways, by its presentation on DVD. The performance begins in almost unbearable silence, interrupted only by an electrocardiogram's rhythmic bleep. A sickbed appears, seemingly glowing from within. Then, slowly, the room around it lightens: a man in a brown corduroy suit, apparently a relative, sits at the foot of the bed of a severely ill woman attached to an artificial respirator. The realistic scene evokes the atmosphere of a cold hospital room in which someone is dying. Typical props meant to “pretty up” add to the bleakness: a framed poster canvassing nightly escapes to Paris, a lonely rose in an ugly hospital vase, an evergreen wreath tied with a red ribbon on the door. Lack of hair spells out the cause of death: cancer.
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