With the action updated to a
London car park and the audience in cars, ENO’s La Bohème is Europe’s first live drive-in opera. Our writer hops on his bike to watch the action from a socially distanced concrete square
Sweaty, hyperventilating and with frozen hands, I arrive at Europe’s first live drive-in opera like Mimi in La Bohème’s last act. Unlike the opera’s heroine, I can barely make myself understood by security staff, still less sing a showstopper that would have them sobbing in their Ford Focuses. Have you ever cycled up the hill to London’s Alexandra Palace?
The unintended genius of English National Opera’s modern-day, 90-minute staging of Puccini’s opera is to spread the class politics from stage to audience. The VIPs are ushered to the best seats in the house – that’s to say cars parked near the stage. These are called “uber boxes”, though, as far as I can see, they are Toyota Priuses in which up to four people can sit. (There’s no need for a driver since these cars aren’t going anywhere.) Behind are the middle classes who’ve come in their own vehicles (£100 per car). Hotel Chocolat servers take orders for ice cream, chocolates and drinks. Surtitles above the stage tell drivers to tune their radios to 87.7FM to get the best audio, though quite a few have their windows open to hear the
music from speakers placed around the car park. All the singers are miked.