Michael Tanner

Cut-price treat

La Bohème<br /> Cock Tavern The Enchanted Pig<br /> Linbury Studio

issue 09 January 2010

La Bohème
Cock Tavern

The Enchanted Pig
Linbury Studio

Puccini’s La Bohème has oddly become the Christmas opera of choice, broadcast on BBC TV on Christmas afternoon (an especially ludicrous affair), and major opera houses dusting down their elderly versions. I doubt whether any of them will be as involving, indeed thrilling and upsetting, as OperaUpClose’s production at the Cock Tavern Kilburn, originally scheduled to run from early December to 20 January, but now extended by two full months, it is proving so popular. The Cock has seating for only 40, so that is not quite as amazing as it sounds, but given the comparative obscurity of the venue it is still impressive. The producer, Robin Norton-Hale, who also translated the text, adapting it to present-day Kilburn (and allowing herself a fair number of annoying mis-stresses), has several casts, so I can — anyway so far — only report on the one I saw on New Year’s Eve, when it provided the sole operatic fare to be had in London, if not in the UK.

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