TV REVIEW : ‘La Boheme’ an Energetic, Uneven Outing

Baz Luhrmann’s wildly popular 1990 staging of Puccini’s “La Boheme” for the Australian Opera comes to PBS tonight in a 1993 performance sung in Italian and taped in the Sydney Opera House.

Fans of Luhrmann’s film “Strictly Ballroom” will recognize the cartoonish approach to authority figures, the ironic humor in the central love relationship and the fascination with pop culture--all present in the original libretto but heightened here in a version set in the late 1950s and cast with youthful singing-actors.

Combining literal pictorialism with bare-bones architectural stylization, Catherine Martin’s setting revolves during the action, supporting the restless, energetic interpretation enforced by Luhrmann, the spirited cast and conductor Julian Smith. Even the English subtitles reflect their irreverent approach.

The result proves decidedly uneven--with inspired horseplay at some moments and standard opera house tableaux at others. But, for once, the reckless eccentricity of these characters is given the proper weight, with only Mimi conventionally sentimentalized.

*

Though she seems out of place with antic ‘50s bohemians, Cheryl Barker sings the role with generous reserves of warm, burnished tone (with some thinning on top) and savors the full measure of heartbreak in it. As her puppyish and sometimes downright goofy Rodolfo, David Hobson sounds distressingly wiry but sings his heart out in a performance that anchors Luhrmann’s concept with great credibility.

Christine Douglas’ good-humored, vocally squally Musetta and Roger Lemke’s bearish, rich voiced Marcello are more standard-issue performances. Gary Rowley fails to make much of an effect during Colline’s great farewell to his overcoat. David Lemke, however, comes on like a whirlwind as Schaunard. John Bolton-Wood and Graeme Ewer prove interchangeable as Alcindoro and Benoit.

* Baz Luhrmann’s Australian Opera production of “La Boheme” (sung in Italian) screens at 9 p.m. tonight on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15. The two-hour telecast can also be seen at 7 p.m. on KVCR Channel 24.