Christmas has in some ways come early at the Royal Opera, where there is something of a Nutcracker vibe to Richard Jones’s production of Puccini’s tearjerker: falling snow, a festive chorus dressed as if for a Technicolor Dickens adaptation, and the prospect of Stewart Laing’s sets being wheeled back and forth for weeks to house several varyingly starry casts.
Top of the billing in this revival, directed by Danielle Urbas, and leading the opening-night cast, is Juan Diego Flórez. It’s not often you get to see and hear a singer with a quarter century of stage experience come fresh to Rodolfo, Puccini’s least mature leading man, but after two decades as the international king of florid 19th-century tenor roles Flórez is branching into heavier repertoire. His experience tells: if you really want to hear the heat-glow heft of a classic Puccini tenor then you could wait for other singers later in the run, but you miss a winning performance from Flórez, all elegant phrasing, rock-solid technique and boyish charm.
