Opera Holland Park marked the four hundredth anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death with Stephen Barlow’s production of La bohème, set in a theatre in Tudor London and designed by Andrew D Edwards. In The Times, Geoff Brown observed that if you set La bohème “in a colony on Mars, you’d still have young love and the music”.
In The Stage, George Hall wrote that former OHP Young Artist Matthew Kofi Waldren conducted an account that was “as perceptive in revealing the detail of Puccini’s score as it was surefooted in overview”, praising the “formidable central quartet” of Anna Patalong (Mimi), Shaun Dixon (Rodolfo), Elin Pritchard (Musetta) and Andrew Finden (Marcello). In The Guardian, Tim Ashley noted Patalong’s “utterly gorgeous” sound and praised the “terrific performances and a fine sense of ensemble”.
