Tuesday November 22, 2011 - Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong sang her first Met Mimi in 1987. Tonight, nearly a quarter-century later, she was repeating her classic interpretation. Along with Liu in TURANDOT, Mimi is a role that Ms. Hong has put her very personal stamp upon over the years. Photo by Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera.
The Korean soprano's voice remains a pure lyric instrument; over the years she never attempted to move into spinto territory and so the sound retains its shimmering silvery quality. Those who like big, lush outpourings of tone in Mimi's music should look elsewhere: Hong's Mimi is vocally delicate, vulnerable and wistful, as befits the character's health and situation. She has long-since mastered the art of expressive portamento and of shading the words with emotional demi-tints. Thus in her long Act I narrative 'Mi chiamano Mimi' we are drawn into the story of this poignant character whose illness and poverty have not dampened her love of life and her constant hope for rebirth every Springtime.
"I live alone, quite alone...
There in my little white room
I look out upon the roofs and the Winter sky.
But when the thaw comes
The first sunshine is mine...
The first kiss of April is mine!"
Interrupted by Rodolfo's friends calling from below, the poet turns to see Mimi standing in the moonlit squalor of the garrett:
"Oh lovely girl, oh sweet face
bathed in the soft moonlight.
In you I recognize
the vision of love I've always dreamed of!"
For those of us who still believe in love at first sight, this is the moment. As Mimi and Rodolfo leave arm in arm for the Cafe Momus, Hong's long high-C floats into the House, and you think it can't get any better than this.
But it does: Hong's third act is a masterpiece of vocal and dramatic portraiture. In a wintry setting near the Barriere d'Enfer, Mimi comes in search of her estranged lover, hoping Marcello will know where she can find him. The desperate fragility of Hong's singing in the duet with Marcello, where her illness and her impending fate tear away at the painter's kind heart was so moving, surpassed moments later as the soprano sang 'Addio senza rancor', her simple and humble farewell to Rodolfo who she thinks she will never see again.
The romance is salvaged though: they will stay together until April comes again. But this will be Mimi's final Springtime. After further quarrels and another separation, Rodolfo despairs of ever seeing her again. But Mimi comes back to the garret in the end, to die. As the other Bohemians go off to find medicine, a muff for her cold hands, and a doctor, the dying Mimi tenderly comforts her distraught lover. After a final lyric outpouring, Hong's voice ebbs away to whispers as she falls asleep for the last time.
Dmitri Pittas was the evening's Rodolfo and while he could not match his Mimi in terms of vocal finesse or expressiveness, his appealing portrayal of a passionate young man unsure of himself and his new-found romantic feelings, was touching. The interesting dynamic created by the soprano and tenor tonight was that she was the one with a romantic history and he was the novice, trying to deal in reality with emotions he had previously only expressed in his poetry. Pittas has an appealing, Italianate sound and if he could not match the likes of a Pavarotti, a Corelli or a Tucker in this music, he gave his all in a committed performance that - dove-tailed with Ms. Hong's tenderness and delicacy - generated an atmosphere of intimate romance.
An outstanding vocal performance tonight from Alexey Markov. As the painter Marcello, the baritone upheld the excellent impression he had made as Chorebus in LES TROYENS at Carnegie Hall in March 2010. The voice is warm, sizeable and speaks well in the big House. We should hear him at the Met more frequently, where is would be most welcome in any number of roles.
The other singers in this evening's performance all fared well: Susanna Phillips was an engaging Musetta, though I wish she had done more singing and less 'characterization' during her famous Waltz where there was too much vocal mugging and winking and not enough sheer voce. She was better in the opera's last two acts. Basso Matthew Rose, towering over the rest of the cast physically, sang his Coat Aria very well, and Patrick Carfizzi was a good Schaunard. It seemed to me that the philosopher and the musician might be lovers in the current staging though comic hijinx served as a cover for their embraces - until the end. Christian Jeong was a clear-voiced Parpignol; the toy-vendor now has an elaborate horse-drawn cart with which to lure in the kiddies.
On the podium Louis Langree seemed to favor slowish tempi but that simply served to allow the perfume of certain phrases to linger on the air. Despite moments when he allowed the orchestra to cover his essentially lyric cast of singers, the conductor and his orchestra did much to enhance the poetic atmosphere that the principal couple onstage were generating.
Curtain-rise at Cafe Momus still evokes a big round of applause but the current staging has diluted some of the effectivenes of the scene. Several waiters and customers spent much of their time on the floor, trying to look up Musetta's skirts.
Metropolitan Opera House
November 22, 2011
LA BOHÈME
Giacomo Puccini
Mimì....................Hei-Kyung Hong
Rodolfo.................Dimitri Pittas
Musetta.................Susanna Phillips
Marcello................Alexey Markov
Schaunard...............Patrick Carfizzi
Colline.................Matthew Rose
Benoit..................Paul Plishka
Alcindoro...............Paul Plishka
Parpignol...............Christian Jeong
Sergeant................Jason Hendrix
Officer.................Richard Pearson
Conductor...............Louis Langrée
I'll never forget my first experience with listening to the whole of LA BOHEME in a Metropolitan Opera Texaco radio broadcast in January 1962. Lucine Amara and Barry Morell were Mimi and Rodolfo; my most vivid recollection of that performance was experiencing the opera's final scene as the winter twilight descended outside. I was alone in the big house, just as I was alone in my life at that time. But I was beginning to get a sense for what was ahead for me: romance, passion, a more expansive world where I could be myself. It took years and many setbacks, but I did eventually find my path.
I don't look much like a lover these days, but the feelings are all still there. Maybe that's why I always weep as Mimi awakens briefly from her death-like rest to bid a final farewell to Rodolfo:
Are they gone? I was only pretending to sleep –
because I wanted to be left alone with you.
I have so many things I want to tell you,
but really only thing: as huge as the ocean,
deep and infinite as the sea...
You are my love and my whole life!
Some of my long-time opera friends wonder why I still bother going to performances. It's for moments like these. And for voices like Hei-Kyung Hong's.