Michael Tanner

Romantic squalor

La Bohème<br /> English National Opera The Demon<br /> Barbican

issue 14 February 2009

La Bohème
English National Opera

The Demon
Barbican

Of all the most popular operas of Puccini, La Bohème is the one that has attracted least critical fire, and that, even during the long period when highbrows were required to despise him, was exempted from the general interdict.

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