OPERA REVIEW : ANNIVERSARY ‘BOHEME’ IN SAN DIEGO

SAN DIEGO —  The late Walter Herbert, founding artistic director of San Diego Opera, would have seen the irony.

Twenty years after its first production (four performances, in English, of Puccini’s “La Boheme” in Civic Theatre in May, 1965), and 10 years after Herbert’s death, San Diego Opera in its 20th-anniversary season has finally found the solution to the operatic-language problem.

In Civic Theatre it is called Opera Text, but it goes by other names in other places. It is the simultaneous projection, above the proscenium, of English translations with a live performance. Those members of the audience who take the trouble to read the projections will never again have to wonder what all those familiar but incomprehensible Italian (or French, or Russian) words mean.

For the 20th-anniversary revival of Puccini’s “La Boheme,” which opened in Civic Theatre on Saturday night, Opera Text kept a lot of opera lovers informed, and did so entertainingly.

There were, during this performance, a couple of places where the uncredited but creditable translators chose to offer blackouts rather than full disclosure--the places where, first, Rodolfo asks Mimi (near the end of Act I) what they will be doing together after supper, and second, where Musetta and Marcello (near the end of Act II) trade insults. But never mind. For the most part, textual enlightenment could be found, above the stage.

Otherwise, this revival, the fifth set of “Bohemes” to be offered by the company in these two decades, is a routine affair, nicely if not memorably sung by a respectable cast.

Stage director Rhoda Levine moves her willing charges around John Scheffler’s still-functional sets reasonably and apprehensibly, and with a minimum of gimmickry. Each of the characters emerges defined and whole--except, of course, where particular singers are incapable of letting character emerge. The theatrical result contains a nice sense of ensemble.

The musical results are mixed. British conductor Robin Stapleton, making his San Diego debut, shows commendable concern for fair sonic balances between stage and pit, accompanies carefully and elicits from his ready instrumentalists rather neat playing.

But he gets these results at a cost of musical momentum, dramatic urgency and Puccinian sweep, all qualities in short supply at the Saturday performance. Too often, Stapleton lets tempos bog where they should crest; too frequently, Stapleton accepts, rather than enforces, the pacing of a particular scene.

His singers, all promising, occupy different levels of accomplishment. Hei-Kyung Hong (Mimi) and Alexandru Ionitza (Rodolfo) seem to be impassioned young performers with good but inconsistent voices; Saturday night, they grew more confident with each passing act--and, with three extended intermissions, this usually short opera became long.

Soprano Hong makes some pretty sounds, mixed with strident and off-pitch ones, but offers a strong stage presence. Ionitza’s tone is less pretty and his musical delivery more questionable; on the other hand, he is not short, and that negative quality can sometimes outweigh other considerations.

Among the others, Frederick Burchinal (who is short) displayed a manly temperament and handsome vocalism as Marcello; Leigh Munro a nasal, wispy sound but considerable projection of charm as Musetta; Harlan Foss, good humor and specific facets of character as Schaunard, and Jeffrey Wells an about-to-bloom vocal gift, if undeveloped acting skills, as Colline--his Coat Song occupied musical space without defining it.

Subsequent performances take place Tuesday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.