Gale Edwards’ perennial production of Puccini’s La Bohème has become a fixture of Opera Australia’s Sydney summer season – we only missed out recently in 2018 when Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour filled the company’s Bohème quota – but an impressive house debut from Australian-Chinese tenor Kang Wang cut through the production’s familiarity to make this an exciting night.

Opera Australia’s La Boheme. Photos © Opera Australia

Moving the action from 1840s Paris to Weimar-era Berlin, Edwards’ production (presented here by Revival Director Liesel Badorrek), certainly stands up visually, thanks to Brian Thomson’s lavish sets and Julie Lynch’s detailed costuming, which serve to elucidate the characters of Puccini’s Bohemians as well as the social and political turbulence in which they struggle to create their art. While this new setting might throw up some distracting anachronisms, as my colleague Justine Nguyen put it last year, “the longevity of Edwards’ staging flows from its fine understanding of Puccini’s characters and their motivations, crafted with care and bearing many small touches that speak volumes”.

Karah Son and Kang Wang in Opera...