La Boheme captivates with stunning production and powerful performances

American writer John Ardoin envied newcomers to La Boheme, discovering Puccini's evergreen score leaping to life with the freshness of a spring day.
NZ Opera's new production might well have even seasoned veterans succumbing, with its opening act so smoothly gliding from the blokey banter of Rodolfo and his mates

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Jacinda Ardern steps back into the global spotlight

The Spinoff

a day ago

The Spinoff

Jacinda Ardern steps back into the global spotlight

As the former PM's memoir hits shelves, Penguin is hoping her enduring star power can turn A Different Kind of Power into a bestseller, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. A different kind of memoir Jacinda Ardern's long-anticipated autobiography, A Different Kind of Power, is officially released today. Framed as a deeply personal account rather than a political exposé, the memoir chronicles Ardern's rise from small-town Morrinsville to global leadership – and her abrupt, self-authored exit from the world stage. The book's launch has been accompanied by a major international publicity push. Ardern has appeared on CBS's Sunday Morning show, sat down for a reflective interview with The Guardian, and featured on the mega-popular The Rest is Politics podcast. At home, she's been interviewed by Seven Sharp's Hilary Barry and the NZ Herald's Kim Knight, among others. The media blitz is not just about selling copies, but reinforcing Ardern's core message: that kindness, empathy and even self-doubt have a place in leadership. More personal warmth than political revelation Early reviews suggest that A Different Kind of Power offers plenty of feeling but not a lot of drama. Frances Stead Sellers of The Washington Post (paywalled) praises the memoir as a 'clear and compelling case for compassion' that suffers at times from 'its author's earnestness', while The Post's editor Tracy Watkins describes the book as emotionally resonant but light on backroom revelations – especially when it comes to a post-mortem on pandemic decision-making. 'If, like me, you're looking for fresh insights, or signs of regret over some of the decisions her government made, you may be disappointed,' Watkins writes. Newsroom's Steve Braunias, in the most deeply read and incisive review so far, is more generous. Like other reviewers, he comments on Ardern's sometimes cloying focus on empathy throughout the book – but also highlights a 'pitiless' nine-page section on a certain New Zealand politician. 'Ardern introduces him to an American public who had hitherto never heard of the vainglorious sap and parades him as the villain of A Different Kind of Power,' he writes. Today is probably a very bad day to be former Labour leader David Cunliffe. A big bet for Penguin Commercially, A Different Kind of Power is a major gamble. According to a fascinating story, again by Steve Braunias at Newsroom, Penguin is rumoured to have paid Ardern an advance of $1.5 million, meaning the book will need to sell at least 140,000 copies globally to break even. Publishing experts believe it's possible, particularly with Australian rights in play and a high-profile North American book tour scheduled. Braunias speaks to writer and book editor Paula Morris, who points out that the advance may also include Ardern's upcoming children's book, Mum's Busy Work, due out in September, which will make earning it back a far easier task. Comparisons are already being drawn to Spare by Prince Harry, which reportedly required 500,000 print sales to recover its costs. As with Harry, Ardern is a polarising figure, and that may well help drive both publicity and sales. (As an aside, Newsroom is the place to be for Ardern-book completists this week, with not one but three reviews scheduled, from Braunias, Janet Wilson and Tim Murphy.) Not the first Ardern book, and not the last word This isn't the first time Ardern's life has been turned into reading material. Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader by The Spinoff's own Madeleine Chapman was a bestseller, as was Michelle Duff's Jacinda Ardern: The Story Behind An Extraordinary Leader, which in 2019 inspired the bizarre #TurnArdern campaign. The Covid-era tome Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy earned a withering review from Toby Manhire, who said that 'it was written by two authors trying hard to tell the story of a country without visiting it'. At the time, Ardern said it was 'awkward' to have her life story told via unauthorised biography – perhaps she was thinking about her own authorised version even then. Ardern's book won't be the last word, either. Her story has also been told in Prime Minister, a feature documentary about Ardern's time in office, co-directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsey Utz. While no NZ release date has been confirmed, it will play in this year's NZ International Film Festival. Outside of the NZIFF programmers, few people here have yet seen the film, but a close reading of the trailer by The Spinoff's Alex Casey reveals mic drop, teary moments, and many obligatory Aotearoa-landscape drone shots.

The Spinoff

2 days ago

The Spinoff

Review: La Boheme is intimate but inert

NZ Opera's production of Puccini's masterpiece looks and sounds lovely, but would it work better in a different space? Operas come with their own assumed cultural cache. Even if the general public – if such a thing exists anymore – isn't familiar with specific pieces, they at least know that certain operas exist, and that if they're still being performed they must at least be a little good. The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, and a few other Mozarts have this level of recognition. Puccini's La Bohème – the story of doomed bohemians in love – is another one of these. La Bohème is part of the standard opera repertoire, this most recent production being the fourth time that NZ Opera have performed it since the turn of the millennium, and it is regarded as one of the best operas of all time. You might also be familiar with it as the basis for the musical Rent, but La Bohème remains a far more interesting take on the source material, as it is loosely adapted from Henri Murger's Scenes de la vie de Bohème, which nobody reading this has read. (By the way, calling La Bohème a more interesting version of Rent is a surefire way to piss off fans of both shows.) Director Brad Cohen's new take on the show relocates it to Paris in 1947 – one of those oddly specific directorial setting choices that seems trendy in this artform – but otherwise feels fairly safe. For opera, it is a remarkably small scale story. Men hang out, men fall in love, woman gets sick, woman gets sicker, people get sadder. While there are a few moments where the stage is flooded by the ensemble, for the most part we remain with our core cast. Some of the singing seems oddly underpowered, sometimes lost under the orchestra. The men in the cast suffer the most here, stuck in the uncanny valley between mimicking the physicality of dudes hanging out with each other with the need to play out to the massive venue. As the doomed Mimi, Elena Perroni fares better, helped along by a gorgeous blue dress that seems to absorb the light, and a florid physicality that immediately defines the character. However, it's Emma Pearson as Musetta, easily the most fun character in the show, who stands out. She plays all the colours of the character, her darkness and her frippery, in a way that fills the stage rather than occupies it, but she also finds intimate moments that really stick out. There is one simple gesture toward the end of the show, a flick of a hand, that was so small and so specifically human, but still stood out in the massive space. 'Why do we go to the opera?' is a question I find myself asking when I see any opera, which is perhaps an unfair thing to ask of any one show. I don't watch an episode of Severance or say, even Family Guy, and ponder the value of TV as an artform. Opera is, however, a form that I am still very much in the process of understanding, and by proxy, truly appreciating. What I love about it is the spectacle, the fact that you can see every dollar onstage, and see what happens when art is supported to achieve that spectacle. Opera is a big artform, it involves human beings going large to achieve human truths even larger. La Bohème, or at least this production of it, is not what I go to the opera for. There is an intimacy to it that is lost in the Kiri Te Kanawa, and while the set strikes an initial gorgeous image – like the memory of a Parisian apartment in 1947 dropped in a sack onto the stage, complete with a sunlight hanging over them – the effect is lessened. Similarly, the moments of snow falling from the sky is also initially impressive, even moving, but becomes less effective on repetition. The tension of this intimacy is felt by the entire production (and perhaps this is the fault of the libretto). The moments where the ensemble come onstage feel obligatory rather than organic, and Chris McRae's delightful clown Parpignol, who entertains some children, is as much a jarring intrusion as his inclusion in the second to last paragraph of this review. I wondered what La Bohème might feel like in a more intimate space, whether a theatre like the ASB Waterfront or even Q's Rangatira could capture the small moments at the heart of this show. The show feels unfortunately inert, stuck on this massive stage rather than reaching out to grab us in the stalls. As a result, I felt similarly unmoved. I appreciate the beauty, the music, and what spectacle there is, but it sits at such a distance from me that it might as well be a sculpture. As with all opera, the human truths are there, but I wish I didn't have to squint to see them.

NZ Herald

2 days ago

NZ Herald