Opera review: La Bohème - O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin

5/5

Opera Theatre Company marks 30 years of touring with a return to one of the most popular works in the canon. La Bohème, Puccini’s story of young love and death in Paris, was presented here in the original Italian with subtitles.

Director Ben Barnes plays it straight. The updating of the setting to 1930s Paris is gentle enough not to shock traditionalists. Joe Vanek’s spartan, paint-spattered set transforms effectively to a cheery café interior. Friendship is as much at the heart of this story as passion and the sense of blokey bonhomie among the quartet of bohemian buddies was conveyed with great charm.