Mounting the third production of “La Bohéme” in Southwest Florida in barely a year suggests one of two things. Utter lunacy or supreme confidence.
The production Opera Naples staged Friday night suggested supreme confidence, and justifiably so. Its staging was the most satisfying of the three that have come here: solid vocal talent, a tightly-knit orchestra and amazing sets for a company this size.
Nearly exactly a year ago, a creditable Teatro Lirico d’Europa production came to the Philharmonic Center for the Arts, but lacked the sets that create Paris as a movable feast and the crowds for its street scenes. Then last spring, the Metropolitan Opera beamed its HD production, with Angela Gheorghiu as Mimi and Ramón Vargas as Rodolfo, into Fort Myers’ Bell Tower 20 -- big and beautiful, but, still, a television event.
Friday night, Opera Naples’ “La Bohéme” filled its stage with a 30-voice chorus to create a melodic Christmas Eve in old Paris. It boasted rows of painted apartments rolling back from a detailed main set and a winter frost that hung over the city through the magic of painted nylon. Most important, it offered an irresistible Inna Dukach as the doomed Mimi — a role she perfected in the New York City Opera — and a robust performance with largely local talent.
During one intermission, Opera Naples Founding Director Steffanie Pearce told the crowd that of the nearly 100 people involved in this production, 85 were Southwest Floridians. Many of them were in its consistently nimble chorus, the same one that created the strong vocal texture of its “H.M.S. Pinafore” in November.
“La Bohéme” is such a Puccini masterpiece because, despite plot shortcomings, it musically romanticizes the flamelike existence of youth in a way that presses the bohemian button in all of us. At least briefly, many of us lived that youthful life of no money, all fun and philosophical naiveté. Larceny, with good intentions, was a virtue and love was all-consuming.
Any production that can’t sustain that emotionally high bubble will lose the audience.
Opera Naples effectively paired Dukach as the penniless seamstress Mimi with Glimmerglass Opera tenor Kurt Lehmann as the equally penniless, uber-sensitive poet Rodolfo. They radiate sincerity separately, and are irresistible together in their joyous aria of mutual discovery, “O soave fanciulla (Oh gentle maiden”).”
Dukach’s unaffected voicing and tonal warmth have made her a popular choice for this role, and she infused Mimi with both Friday. Lehmann gave up struggling with the vocal trill that Pavarotti veritably trademarked from “ Che gilida manina (Your little hand is cold).” But that’s a small lapse over a large amount of work. Lehmann’s polished voicing was vulnerable in character, strong in tone — portrayed a near-perfect Rodolfo who conveyed bone-deep despair in the final notes of the opera when he discovers his Mimi has died.
Pearce and baritone Marco Nistico breathe their own vocal fire into the alternately feuding and fawning lovers Musetta and Marcello. Pearce projects considerable heat as the headstrong chanteuse who teases two lovers between tables at the cafe by singing about her own sex appeal in the famous “Quando me n’vò,” widely known as Musetta’s Waltz. Nistico, while he could borrow a bit of that heat for their fight scenes, is a blustery bohemian artist with a voice of youthful timbre and clarity.
As Rodolfo’s fellow bohemians, Christopher Holloway is a comic Schaunard and Curtis Streetman a stoic philosopher who emerges from his cynicism to sing a farewell to his overcoat, sold to help buy medicine for the failing Mimi. In the opening act, both seemed a bit overpowered by the orchestra; that disappeared as both musicians and singers found their balance.
Orchestral support has been one of the vulnerabilities of Opera Naples in the past; Friday, it was one of the strengths. Under Conductor Cal Stewart-Kellogg, whose 28 musicians sounded like twice that number, it was focused and sustained and in fine vocal sync.
We can’t resist saying it: This production deserved to have been staged at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts. It had the stars, the chorus, the sets and the orchestra. It’s not too much to hope that these two organizations can find some middle ground to put a promising regional opera in an outstanding facility.

Contact Harriet Howard Heithaus at 213-6091 or by e-mail: hkheithaus@naplesnews.com

By CHARLES RUNNELLS
crunnells@news-press.com
Three years later, Opera Naples is finally taking on the country's most popular opera, "La Boheme."
The professional Naples company started in 2006, but until this season it didn't have the technical expertise and skilled chorus to mount the luscious Puccini opera, says artistic director Steffanie Pearce, who also plays Musetta in the show. The opera includes four scene changes and a complicated, demanding chorus.
"I just didn't feel we could do it justice before this season," Pearce says.
She likened an opera company to a sports team. You have to build up your players and recruit the best talent available. Now Opera Naples has the right players for the job.
The opera opens today and continues through Sunday.
"La Boheme" - or "The Bohemian" - tells the bittersweet tragedy of love and loss among a community of Parisian artists. Its most famous songs include "Che gelida manina," "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" and "O soave fanciulla."
The Opera Naples version stars rising Canadian tenor Kurt Lehman as Rodolfo and soprano Inna Dukach as Mimi. Dukach recently performed the same role at The New York City Opera.
The opera is directed by Robert Swedberg, formerly of Orlando Opera, and conducted by Cal Stewart Kellogg of Arizona Opera. Kellogg conducted Opera Naples' "Elixir of Love" last year and "Madama Butterfly" in 2007.
"La Boheme" is performed more in the United States than any other opera, according to opera association Opera America. There were 20 major productions during the 2007-2008 season.
People love "Boheme's" beautiful melodies, realistic characters and passionate, heartbreaking story, Pearce says.

I was stunned on Sunday afternoon as I arrived at Gulf Coast High School. There, dozens upon dozens of cars were filing in, all carrying persons preparing to see Opera Naples' second production for this season: "La Boheme."
After all, this was the third time Puccini's beloved opera had been performed in Southwest Florida in the past year. Most fans of opera are passionate about this very special art form; Naples is, nonetheless, in the greater scheme of things, a very small community. How many times can the same story be staged before the well runs dry of eager concertgoers?

(I say this, knowing full well I would probably return over and over again to see "Cosi Fan Tutti" if it were the hysterical Tanglewood version brilliantly performed by Opera Naples last season.)

Apparently, local opera aficionados didn't mind it was the third production of "La Boheme" in the area in one year. The auditorium was a near sell out, the most I have seen to date at an Opera Naples performance.

My delight continued when the opera opened and a wildly enthusiastic audience shouted "Bravo!" as the first set design came into view on stage. We had Steffanie Pearce's husband, Samuel Vasquez Jr., to thank for the utterly brilliant set designs that did so much to add to the opera. The audience knew it, too, giving cheers for the set with each of the four act changes.
That being the case, the die was cast for this performance of "La Boheme" to be truly top drawer. It did not disappoint.

Returning to conduct was a major figure in the opera world, Cal Stewart Kellogg, whose conducting is in and of itself a work of art.

And the music? From its first baby steps four years ago, the now 30-member orchestra, led by concertmaster (and former concertmaster of the New York Opera Company) Ray Gniewek, was also absolutely first class. No longer did it have the feel of being a fledgling pick-up group.

Under the excellent tutelage of chorus master Robin Shuford Frank, the Naples Opera chorus has also come into its own. This includes the 15-voice children's chorus (a few as young as 6), who came across as seasoned pros during their various stage appearances.

Set designer Sam Vasques and his wife, sorprano Steffanie Pearce
And the cast? In a word, fabulous!
Canadian tenor Kurt Lehman (Glimmerglass Opera), who was Rodolfo, has a host of credits to his name, including performances as Pinkerton in "Madama Butterfly," and made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Verdi's "Requiem."

In the role of Mimi, destined to die of tuberculosis just as her life is beginning, soprano Inna Dukach (The New York City Opera) was breathtaking. I doubt there was a dry eye in the house when the lovers ended the first act with their seamless performance of "O soave fanciulla."

And so the story continued, alternating between abject poverty and momentary "plenty," the bohemian lifestyle embraced by so many artists.

And the remainder of the cast? Soprano (and Opera Naples founding artistic director) Steffanie Pearce was wonderfully cast as the provocative, petulant Musetta, as was the hapless Marcello, sung by Marco Nistico (New York City Opera). Rounding out the cast were baritone Christopher Holloway (The Orlando Opera) as Schaunard and bass Curtis Streetman (The Salzberg Festival) as Colline.

For a regional opera company, Opera Naples proved itself Sunday to be every bit as fine as many of the "bigs" I have enjoyed over the years. Only one tiny, but important thing was less than perfect: the nerve-wracking stampede of cars simultaneously trying to exit onto Immokalee Road, with only a flashing light from either direction, after the performance.