LA BOHEME – REVIEW OF 2025 LIVE FROM THE MET IN HD TRANSMISSION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

Puccini’s La Bohème is back on a theatre screen near you. If you do not see it, it is your loss. It is a gorgeous production and streamed for us who do not live in New York and probably could not afford the hefty ticket prices.

A few numbers. The performance on Saturday, November 8, 2025, was the 1415^th at the Metropolitan opera. That makes it the most produced opera at the Met. Franco Zeffirelli’s production has been performed more than 500 times since its first performance in 1981. The most of any production.  And it has been played in all but nine of the Met’s seasons since  its first production at the Met in 1900.                         

How is that for stats?

The current production has the same sets designed by Zeffirelli, costumes by Peter J. Hall, lighting by Gil Wechsler and is done by revival director Mirabelle Ordinaire.

Our beloved Mimi is sung by soprano Juliana Grigoryan and she has all the attributes of a superb heroine. She appears petite, innocent, virginal and lovable. She has a lovely voice and holds those notes with ease and beauty. Of course, she is clever enough to blow out her candle when she sees in Rodolfo someone that she likes and pretends that she lost her key. She may be a flirt and may have some shortcomings but we don’t care. We love her and are with her all along. 

Heidi Stober as Musetta (centre) and the crowd in La Boheme. 
Photo: Karen Almond / Met Opera

Tenor Freddie De Tommaso has a beautiful, light, Pavarottiesque voice ideal for Rodolfo. He hits the high notes right at his entry on stage and maintains gorgeous tones throughout. When he cries at Mini’s death there is not a dry eye in the house.

Baritone Lucas Meacham is a virile and sympathetic Marcello who must endure and enjoy the tempestuous Musetta. But he sings with beautiful sonority and is a he-man who can take care of himself.

Soprano Heidi Stober’s Musetta is of course tempestuous, enjoys teasing and perhaps making Marcello’s life hell at times but she is also extremely decent when she sells her jewel to buy medication for Mimi. She does Musetta’s Waltz superbly as becomes a teaser of the male organ.

Women conductors have become highly desirable (it’s about time) and the Met Orchestra was conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson. Excellent work.

Zeffirelli’s sets with the garret on the top floor of a tenement in the Latin Quarter, a snow-covered area near the toll-gate on the outskirts of Paris and a terrific scene for  the parade that includes a donkey and a horse are splendid and spectacular as needs be. Peter J. Hall’s costumes are perfect and Gil Wechslet’s lighting adds feature to this superb production.   

Seeing a performance at the Met is wonderful but catching a performance on a large screen has its benefits. You can examine faces and reactions in detail and see things that you may not witness if you sat in the best seats in Lincoln Center. 

This was the sixth time that I saw the Zeffirelli production and I confess to enjoying it thoroughly. Go see it.
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La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini was transmitted Live in HD from New York’s Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on November 8, 2025. There will be an encore showing on December 6, 2025. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events.

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto