🔗 Share this article

Abandoning penguin suits and picnic baskets in favor of affordable tickets and smart-casual style, the opera house's autumn program began with Floris Visser's stylish production of La Bohème. Seamlessly restaged by Rachael Hewer, this staging not only impresses visually but also honors Puccini's famous tearjerker while discovering novel ways to raise goosebumps.

Striking Visuals and Mood

Dieuweke van Reij's stage design – a metaphorical highway to heaven – serves for all four acts, with more than a nod to Brassaï's shadowy 1930s Paris imagery. Bare walls and glistening cobblestones are stunningly illuminated by Alex Brok, while Jon Morrell's black-and-white costumes ooze high fashion. Visser's artists occupy a sort of liminal space, a realm of mists, gendarmes, and sex workers, where the ghost of Death prowls the streets with the consumptive Mimì firmly in his sights.

An eerily powerful conceit, portrayed with consummate calm by Christopher Lemmings.

Whenever Aida Pascu's haunted dressmaker appears, he's there, a pale figure in black, sitting and gazing. Rodolfo senses him, perhaps, but Mimì increasingly notices and dreads him. He pops up as the toy-seller Parpignol, this time grasping an ominous bunch of crimson balloons. When the couple declare they will not part until the flowers reappear in the spring, he pulls aside a canvas to show them already flowering. Mimì's final, tormented cry of “Come here, my love” is delivered not to Rodolfo but to Death himself.

Precise and Aesthetically Pleasing Scenes

Visser creates exact and optically alluring tableaux. His likable students participate in spirited roughhousing that for once is well-choreographed and easy to follow. The public square buzzes with energy; Café Momus excels at humorous serving staff; corrupt policemen turn more than a blind eye to the business of the local prostitutes.

High Musical Standards

In the orchestra, musical standards are excellent. Adam Hickox, child of the late Richard Hickox, has clearly inherited the conducting gene, providing an sharp interpretation of Puccini's music that's keenly attentive. A tangible, carefully measured elasticity intensifies the emotional stakes without ever turning overly sentimental. The Glyndebourne Sinfonia responds eagerly, as do the lively chorus and the youthful voices of Glyndebourne Youth Opera.

Standout Acting

Pascu's pitiable Mimì is a delicate creation, wan, nervous, and extremely fragile. Her voice has just the right degree of middle-range creaminess, although top notes could use a little more body. Andrés Agudelo's Rodolfo doesn't always spark. His voice flourishes and wanes, sometimes within the same phrase, and he's inclined to resort to stock operatic movements.

Aksel Daveyan's singing confidence brightens his otherwise taciturn Marcello, making him an superb foil for Camilla Harris's assured, spirited, and ever-so chic Musetta. Markus Suihkonen excels as Colline, his performance climaxing in a moving Coat Aria, with Darwin Prakash a firm-toned, puckish Schaunard and Darren Jeffery delivering superb brief appearances as Benoît and Alcindoro.

• In Sussex, until 2 November.