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It would be churli h to suggest that when E O reinstated the interval after the fir t run, none of that survived. The production's fifth revival (by Michael Walling) continued to draw detailed but not overwrought peiformance from the inger . Jeremy Sam ' typically forthright translation help , providing genuine if occa ionally gratuitou laughter.By and large the ea t made the most of it. ot that Mu etta's show-stopping dance atop the Momus table needs any verbal content. Alycia Fashae played her as a cross between Rita Hayworth in Gilda and Jayne Man field in The Girl Can't Help ft. If the voice turned our under tre , it was till a characterization full of sex and ympathy, which i urely what Musetta has in abundance. No wonder Marcello melt . Here, David Kemp ter showed what an a et he i a an ENO company principal, the voice dark and full of feeling, the physical presence relaxed but commanding. That la t characteristic i not always at Rhys Meirion's disposal. Although hi Rodolfo had the right cutting edge, his body language belongs in a more traditional production. When he say to Miml, 'Your tiny hand i frozen, let me warm it up in mine', he immediately drops her hand so that hi arm are free for some operatic emoting. Perhaps Linda Richard on' Miml needed no warming up. Thi was no wide-eyed ingenue but a sophisticated adult, capable of taking thing into her own hand , o to speak, when it came to educing Rodolfo. The en e that he ha real fie h and blood makes her death mean something. With smaller part no le clo ely ob erved, thi was a powerful ensemble performance, unfus ily conducted by Michael Lloyd. Puccini doesn't have to be overblown to pack a punch. ow, any chance of reverting to Plan A, and doing away with the interval? !CK KIMBERLEY LaBoheme Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, September 27 Until recent event aero the Atlantic, you could have been forgiven for thinking that we were living in prosperous times. Except in the world of Briti h opera, of cour e. So a third revival of Phyllida Lloyd's eight-year-old Boheme ( ee OPERA, June 1993, pp. 730-2) was to be expected-to complement the simultaneous productions at ENO, WNO, Opera Box and Scottish Opera Go Round. Sure enough, the Grand was overflowing for thi reopening, having struggled to reach half-full for a new Cunning Little Vixen a fortnight earlier. Have audiences really retrenched to thi extent? Nevertheles , thi i a show that deserved to be revisited, even before Daniel Slater took over as revival director. He kept its vitality intact and added a few neat touche of hi own. Indeed, there was a parkle right through the ea t. It began with Mary Plaza a a gut y but doomed Miml. Petite and mallboned, he hardly needed to cough to assure u that he wa not long for this world, so grim wa her make-up. But he also produced much lovely tone, even coming clo e to the ideal with her parting note in Act 1, delivered on tage but with her back to the audience. There wa plenty of chemi try between her and the Rodolfo of Barrie van der Plas, as he stooped to enfold her frailty in his broad embrace. He i not a natural actor, preferring to rely on hi teely tenor to convey any inner turbulence. The re ult was a poet caught by urprise, overtaken by hi emotions before he knew it. William Dazeley, the original Schaunard in thi production, wa here the tar turn as Marcello, not merely as life and soul of the party but also most sympathetically 1518 Opera, December 2001
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a int rmediary between the principal lover in Act 3. Hi well-centred baritone ha become an exceptionally flexible in trument. lightly le extrovert, if only in compari on, wa Stephan Loge ' transve tite Schaunard, with Henry Waddington an altogeth r more thoughtful olline. Chri tine Buffle Mu ella wa rather m re c nvincing at the clo e than with Alcindoro, when he tried rather too hard and the voice I t focu . Greater relaxation would urely have brought a gain in allure. The tru ty Eric Robert doubled again a landlord and ugar daddy each quizzical in their different ways. There wa no lack of enthu ia m in Steven Sloane' well-paced conducting, though he pu hed hi inger hard at everal climaxe . What make thi producti n o attractive till i it adventurou excur ion into both end of the tragicomic pectrum. But where fun and fever could co-exi t o feli itou ly nobody had a right to complain. Poverty- tricken or not, Opera orth wa right back on song. M RTI DREYER Jenufa Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Septeniber 28 Opera d e not get much belt r than thi -at lea t, not musically. It' hard to know where to begin, but the contribution of Bernard Haitink, Karita Mattila and Anja Silja are o tied up together in thi outstanding ucce that order here hardly matter . Yet first place should go to Janae k, till not recognized in all quarter a one of the very greate t opera omp er : at thi performance hi mu ic radiated and pul ed with humanity, helped by ome incomparable inging and Haitink' magnificent • 'Jenufa' at Covent Garden, with (l. lo 1:) Jonna Silvasti as Laca, Anja Silja a the Kostelnicka and Karita Mattila in the title role

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a int rmediary between the principal lover in Act 3. Hi well-centred baritone ha become an exceptionally flexible in trument. lightly le extrovert, if only in compari on, wa Stephan Loge ' transve tite Schaunard, with Henry Waddington an altogeth r more thoughtful olline. Chri tine Buffle Mu ella wa rather m re c nvincing at the clo e than with Alcindoro, when he tried rather too hard and the voice I t focu . Greater relaxation would urely have brought a gain in allure. The tru ty Eric Robert doubled again a landlord and ugar daddy each quizzical in their different ways.

There wa no lack of enthu ia m in Steven Sloane' well-paced conducting, though he pu hed hi inger hard at everal climaxe . What make thi producti n o attractive till i it adventurou excur ion into both end of the tragicomic pectrum. But where fun and fever could co-exi t o feli itou ly nobody had a right to complain. Poverty- tricken or not, Opera orth wa right back on song.

M RTI DREYER

Jenufa Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Septeniber 28 Opera d e not get much belt r than thi -at lea t, not musically. It' hard to know where to begin, but the contribution of Bernard Haitink, Karita Mattila and Anja Silja are o tied up together in thi outstanding ucce that order here hardly matter . Yet first place should go to Janae k, till not recognized in all quarter a one of the very greate t opera omp er : at thi performance hi mu ic radiated and pul ed with humanity, helped by ome incomparable inging and Haitink' magnificent

• 'Jenufa' at Covent Garden, with (l. lo 1:) Jonna Silvasti as Laca, Anja Silja a the Kostelnicka and Karita Mattila in the title role

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