Two winters ago, Baz Luhrmann was trying to bring a young, believable and edgy La Bohème to Broadway. Would he have bothered had he seen what David McVicar had achieved already with his 2000 production, currently being revived by Glyndebourne on Tour?
It ruffled a few feathers when it was new: updated opera stagings may be de rigueur, but most directors have the courtesy to leave things non-specific, or to cushion their story with the kind of airbrushed 1940s or 1950s backdrop we've seen idealised so many times on film. McVicar, though, sets it right now and, give or take 100 miles, right here, swapping the Parisian garret for a grubby flat in the grotty end of London's Soho, the housemates elbowing their way to Cafe Momus through a crowd of Christmas shoppers bearing Selfridges bags.
As with most updatings, taking things too literally could throw up awkward questions. Where's the NHS when Mimi needs it? Can none of the starving flatmates get a bar job? But for the most part, McVicar has solved the problems skillfully; moreover, the revival director Leah Hausmann has drawn such relaxed, vivid portrayals from all the soloists that the characters become believable and even recognisable. The laddish dynamic between the four flatmates is spot on.
The few small weaknesses are musical: occasionally sluggish orchestral playing, and some initially slightly dry singing from Peter Auty as Rodolfo, trying out his poetry on Michelle Cannicioni's Mimi by the heavy glow of the gas fire. But Auty warms up, and he phrases stylishly; and GOT's new music director, Edward Gardner, brings out a rich palette of detail from Puccini's score. Cannicioni has a gleam to her voice but is almost too unassuming on stage; Majella Cullagh's Musetta, though, is irresistible, and William Dazeley's Marcello is an excellent match - it's a shame that, as a late stand in, he won't be singing it throughout the tour. This is McVicar at his finest, and one of the most truthful Bohèmes you are likely to see.
· On tour until December 11. Details: 01273 813813.
