UNUSUAL CHEMISTRY

RODERIC DUNNETT was at the
Chisinau National Opera's 'La Bohème'

I took myself with just a little trepidation to see the Chisinau National Opera's touring production of La Bohème, currently touring over fifteen centres in England and Ireland (where it visits Cork, Limerick, Belfast and Dublin 27 Mar-4 April).

True, audiences in Basingstoke, Ipswich, Tunbridge Wells or Coventry, all just off the major British companies' Arts Council touring circuit, are thoroughly grateful for any ensemble with the initiative and verve to bring opera -- even the hackneyed but undeniably moving Bohème -- into their area. Arguably some of the more enterprising locally-based set-ups -- Dorset Opera, Opera Omnibus, Stowe Opera -- should be funded to do just that, much as the hardworking English Touring Opera does; the Welsh (mid-Wales Opera, Music Theatre Wales) are rather good at it. But might a Bohème from black-earthed, wine-producing Moldova, and not at subsidised prices either, just possibly be selling the audience short?

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