OperaUpClose – La Bohème – a London version
Having first seen a production of La Bohème by OperaUpClose, a newly formed group of aspiring opera singers and musicians, not long after their beginnings in October 2009. It began as an experiment after a ‘typical throwaway’ suggestion from Adam Spreadbury-Maher who happened to be the artistic director of the Cock Tavern Theatre.
Spreadbury-Maher wanted to ‘do’ an opera at the Cock Tavern, a gritty and notorious Irish pub full of hardened drinkers on the Kilburn High Road in north London that just about accommodated a tiny theatre above the public bar. However, in many respects the setting suited Bohème’s tale of the poverty-stricken young artists in an inner city environment be it Paris or London. A great novelty was the use of the public bar below for the second scene set in ‘Café Momus’. The action takes place for the enjoyment of the paid theatre-goers and a smattering of bemused non-paying drinkers. Our seats in the tiny theatre space were in fact two chairs placed on the edge of the stage – we could not have been closer to the action!
The production was an instant success with critical acclaim from the likes of Jonathan Miller and Nicholas Payne, former head of the English National Opera and John Copley whose La Bohème had been played at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for many years. Also in the audience was Mark Godfrey executive director of the Soho Theatre.
The OperaUpClose production moved to the Soho Theatre in London’s West End where it won an Olivier Award for Best New Opera and Best Off-West End Production. Jan and I were able to take my three children and their partners to this production a couple of years later and they were all fooled, like many others, after Act 1 when Act 2 started up whilst we were still drinking in the theatre bar. Like the Cock Tavern, the performance of a full opera broke new ground also at the Soho Theatre.
On 3rd Jan 2015 we were delighted to enjoy a third ‘helping’ of La Bohème this time at its latest venue the King’s Head Theatre on Upper Street in Islington, back in north London.
The King’s Head Theatre founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford is the first and longest running pub theatre in the UK and the first since Shakespearean times. The small theatre is on the ground floor behind the bar as has been a venue for many productions of plays, musicals, stand-up comedy and revues etc. Since 2010 OperaUpClose has been the resident theatrical company with Adam Spreadbury-Maher as artistic director of the theatre. The performance of La Bohème was a new English version with an excellent libretto written by Robin Norton-Hale the artistic director of OperaUpClose.
A visit to their website will give details of past and future performance on-tour and who knows maybe one day collaborating and performing Puccini operas with young and innovative companies in Lucca!