But as we rehearse, Daniel’s Rodolfo becomes a confident, boastful figure prone to exaggeration and sentiment, while Phil’s Mimi is a tentative, uneasy presence who ultimately sees himself and the world with more mature eyes than his enthusiastic lover. Having directed a much more conventional Bohème 30 years ago, I was concerned that casting two singers of the same voice type might flatten the colours and dynamics of the duet. In our new English-language version, Rodolfo, a tenor role, meets Lucas, an online hook-up whose friends have given the nickname Mimi, and who is also sung by a tenor. It’s O Soave Fanciulla from Puccini’s La Bohème, one of the most performed scenes in the opera repertoire, written for a male and a female voice.
I ’m listening to two tenors – Philip Lee and Daniel Koek – sing a love duet.
