Jonathan Miller’s freshly minted Bohme was a timely operatic look in the social mirror. Almost 2 years on, and the hardships of his young Bohemians appear no much less apt.

With fiscal collapse so without difficulty on the horizon, a lesser director might have succumbed and introduced up a "relevant" latest treatment. It is to Miller’s credit (and one in the eye to these critics who so automatically deplore his smugness) that he not best have shyed away from this dramatic dead end, however eschewed the self-conscious cleverness of Cos or Rigoletto, as a substitute delivering an understated, unobtrusive, 1930s Bohme that decorously whispers, somewhat than screams, "classic".

Wearing its Depression-era lightly, Isabella Bywater’s muted palette and mobile set lends a unprecedented cohesion to the opera’s 4 acts, so regularly plunged from dusty penury to evident technicolour for the Caf Momus episode of Act Two. Her patrons are festive, her children freshly scrubbed, however there's not one of the twee jollity that haunts John Copley’s production up the road (and only a gesture of a snowfall). By the similar token her Bohemians, neither threadbare destitutes nor artistically baggy posturers, are simply scruffy and collectively short of a hairbrush.

Revolving neatly to show Caf and Inn, the set’s a couple of levels position its young artists in a first-floor garret, very much assisting the singers with the not inconsiderable factor of projecting over the enthusiastic orchestra. The higher storey did further provider right through Act Three’s charged confrontation between Mimi and Rodolfo. A lit window and gauzy curtain found out the semi-clad figures of Marcello and Musetta, reconciling and preventing in the brazenly physical, specific method that their counterparts fail – at such wonderful musical duration – to achieve.

With Broadway darling Alfie Boe returning to sing Rodolfo for only a handful of performances in January, the role is these days occupied by the excellent Gwyn Hughes Jones. Matching a voice of crooning roundedness on the stave with all-out energy above it, his Pinkerton woes were cleaned within moments. There was no trace of tightness or rigidity via a efficiency whose puppyish vulnerability was a shocking bonus on top of such vocal authority. "Che gelida manina" neither lingered nor indulged, however poured naturally out. Perhaps the actual top point alternatively was the Act Four duet "O Mimi, tu piu non torni", where, egged on by Roland Wood’s resonant baritone, he was in any case in a position to unencumber his full lyric force.

'This is a Bohme for people who hate Bohme'

La Boheme broadway musical tickets are now available for Denver for Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Detroit for Detroit Opera House, New York for Metropolitan Opera and London for London Coliseum.

Supported by Wood (whose Act Four fandango was so enthusiastic as to risk the health of Bywater’s chic set) in conjunction with George von Bergen’s beautifully sung Schaunard, an inspired cockney turn from Simon Butteriss (Benoit) and a somewhat woollier Colline from Pauls Putnins, the energy between the chums was comfy and believable. In-jokes, pranks and baguette-duelling delivered so much to the allure of the outlet act, offsetting the opera’s lingering decline with delicate pathos.

Fresh from victory in closing year’s inaugural Voice of Black Opera Competition, and making her ENO debut, was Elizabeth Llewellyn as Mimi. A spinto soprano of surprisingly darkish tone, her coated sound and vowels aren't at their perfect in opposition to the ringing brightness of Jones’s Rodolfo. Although for sure possessed of both the power and vary for the role, her Mimi as but continues to be one thing of a cipher, failing to articulate the arc between delicate coquette and maligned blameless that she must tread. Balanced for tone by Mairead Buicke’s solid Musetta, the vocal laurels for the night time were for sure with the men, and it was laborious not to lengthy for a go back of 2009’s Melody Moore and Hanan Alattar to check them.

After a promising dervish of a start from the pit, Stephen Lord and his musicians settled right into a colourful, if on occasion not up to sprightly, rendition. Thwarted on a couple of occasion by singers declining to linger, no doubt the pace and tone of complaints will settle into cohesion because the run continues.

Neither chocolate field nor squalid bedsit, Miller’s production makes nuanced experience of what can so easily change into an opera of primary colours. With a strong ensemble cast, poised orchestral enjoying and no mawkish excesses of sentiment, this is a Bohme for people who hate Bohme. For folks that love it, it’s a treat. La Boheme broadway musical tickets are now on sale for Denver for Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Detroit for Detroit Opera House, New York for Metropolitan Opera and London for London Coliseum.