While La bohème needs no introduction, every production finds its own way of revisiting that romantic vision of bohemian life in 1840s Paris. In this revival of the 2017 production with Theater St Gallen, Scottish Opera leans into the nostalgia, offering a slightly melancholic take that shows just how much the artistic way of living has changed – or maybe hasn’t – since Puccini turned Murger’s mid-19th-century stories into an opera that premiered in 1896.
We begin in what feels like the Latin Quarter of Paris in 2025 – full of tourists wandering in for a glimpse of what used to be the centre of artistic life, the kind of place Henri Murger romanticised in his novel Scènes de la vie de bohème, which Puccini based the opera on. The framing’s clever: we’re all tourists here, gathering in an opera house to peek at the myth of the starving artist. The fascination with the poor artist stereotype hasn’t gone away; it’s just evolved, dressed up in a different century. The idea of having a calling – and following it through every obstacle and empty stomach – still feels as intoxicating as ever.
Conducted by Stuart Stratford, the orchestra sweeps us back to 1896 Turin, where the work first premiered at Teatro Regio. This production stays faithful to the original spirit while letting us view it through the eyes of a modern-day onlooker, imagining what life might have been like back then.
And then we don’t have to imagine – we’re dropped straight into Rodolfo’s freezing room, with Mario Chang giving an exquisite performance alongside Roland Wood’s hysterically good and instantly likeable Marcello. Soon joined by Callum Thorpe and Edward Jowle, the quartet fall into that familiar rhythm of friendship and creative chaos, their chemistry easy and believable – a little messy, a little tender, just right. Jowle has a real charisma that draws the eye every time he’s on stage, while Thorpe brings a beautiful, grounded sensibility to Colline that makes the quieter moments land with surprising weight. Jamie MacDougall adds a perfect touch of lightness as the landlord, bringing some much-needed mischief to the scene.
André Barbe and Renaud Doucet create a world that’s easy to get lost in, like that tourist still chasing traces of the Latin Quarter as it once was. There’s plenty of imagination and colour – enough to make it look just a little more beautiful, a little more desirable than real life ever could. But just like the artists themselves, Barbe and Doucet let their imagination roam free, showing us a world through pink glasses (or red wine), supported brilliantly by Rhian Lois as the unstoppable, charismatic Musetta. She lights up the stage, making you feel, just for a moment, that life really is the most beautiful painting.
Those bright moments land even harder against the opera’s darker turns – the love between Mimi and Rodolfo pulling everything back to earth. Hye-Youn Lee brings a striking strength to Mimi, redefining the role with warmth and quiet power, while Chang matches her intensity in a partnership that feels grounded and human.
Barbe and Doucet’s La bohème knows exactly what it is: a dream of art, love, and loss that still has something to say. We might live in a different world now, but the longing – to make something, to feel something – hasn’t changed.
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Core funded by the Scottish Government.
La bohème is running at Theatre Royal Glasgow throughout October, then moving to Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh in November.
Review date: 11th October 2025
