Puccini was only 65 when he died 100 years ago this November – but his lifetime spanned a period of astonishing change. Born before unified Italy, in what was still the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the composer died the proud owner of fast cars and speedboats.
To mark the centenary of the composer’s death, English National Opera opens its season by dusting off Jonathan Miller’s 2009 production of La bohème (two semi-staged performances of Suor Angelica also mark the anniversary). The rotating cutaway set – artist’s garret upstairs on one side, bohemian drinking hole downstairs on the other – gives us 1930s Paris in numerous shades of grey. But the interwar drabness is enlivened by some exquisite lighting, overseen in this revival by Marc Rosette: the subtle glow of pendant lamps in the garret, the cold blush of dawn at the start of Act 3, the inviting glow of an interior glimpsed through windowpanes as snow falls outside.
