Promises can be hard to keep. Friday night's production of La Boheme despite the outstanding musical quality of the New York City Opera National Company's performance -- did not quite live up to the opera's promise of transforming its audience into lovers of the genre.

The show was not, by any means, a disaster. The sets were simple and effective: from the squalid, Kafkaesque attic of the bohemians to the festive Cafe Momus. The lighting, too, was effective, creating subtle mood changes through shifting colors. The voices were clear and sonorous, and the orchestra -- though a bit overpowering in places -- was wonderful. Somewhere, however, the drama was lost.

"It wasn't very moving," said Bruce Shamma, owner of Blue Train Compact Discs, shaking his head.

Part of the blame must go to the supertitles projected over the stage; they proved to be more of a distraction than an enhancement.

In the past, this has not been the case. When the New York City National Company performed Rosini's Il Barbiere di Seviglia in 1987, the supertitles were delightfully appropriate, delivering comic lines with polished timing. UnfortunateIy, Friday night's supertitles provided humor that was both ill-timed and inappropriate. The problem lay in their rather obtuse translations; the English was too colloquial and too "modernized."

"It seemed like they were written for television," said Robin Hyden, a manager at Blue Train.

Had the supertitles been its only shortcoming, however, La Boheme could still have been a success. After all, the actor is the heart of the drama; a truly outstanding cast can overcome the worst technical difficulties. Though very good, this cast was not outstanding.

The tale of La Boheme revolves around the romance of Mimi and Rodolfo; therefore, their love must be convincing.

"I really didn't identify with them," Bill Batchelor (senior - German) said. "They were boring. I was never convinced that they were in love, so that whole last scene didn't work for me."

Many attributed the lack of chemistry to miscasting. "I appreciate (Michele Boucher's) performance," said Steven Lauser (senior - political science), "but you expect Mimi to be a little better matched with the others -- a little younger, smaller, maybe. I think it may have detracted from the character."

Apparently, Lauser was not the only one in the audience who felt that Boucher may have been a bit too matronly to play the petite, consumptive Mimi. At one point, as Rodolfo sang of his "frail, little love," a general murmur -- which Lauser said he thought was "sort of rude" -- arose from the audience.

"I think the general sentiment of the evening was, 'She ain't frail,' " Priscilla Beard (sophomore - English) said.

Disbelief, however, can be suspended -- and heavy operatic singers are part of an accepted convention which has almost become cliched. Look at Jessye Norman, whose performances in Carmen and Bluebeard's Castle (to name a few) have been unforgettably sexy, despite her size. Michele Boucher is not the first large woman to play Mimi, nor will she be the last.

Perhaps Boucher and Martin Thompson, who played Rodolfo, were not accustomed to working together. Thompson was Robert Brubaker's last-minute replacement for Friday night's performance. At first, he was slightly aloof, but as he warmed up his stage presence improved tremendously. He sang beautifully, as did Boucher, but his charmingly boyish Rodolfo never seemed to become truly attached to the not-so-girlish Mimi.

There were some touching scenes between the two. In Act III, during "Donde lieta usci (Where happily I left)," the audience's disbelief was, temporarily, suspended. As the lovers lamented the sadness of parting in winter -- under a beautifully realistic snowfall -- the emotion was very honest.

This emotion carried over into the last scene, which was musically exquisite. Finally, Thompson and Boucher seemed comfortable with one another, The audience was completely silent, carried away by the touching subtlety of Mimi's death. Unfortunately, tacky blocking undermined the beauty of this moment, with Thompson shaking Boucher's limp body (her head rolling grotesquely from side to side) until the others wrestled him away. It seemed as though the directors didn't trust the music to convey the proper emotion without these melodramatic gestures. This was the real tragedy.

It must be noted that the other bohemians were truly delightful, establishing a light-hearted pathos with their mocking horseplay and jokes about love, philosophy, money, and the ephemeral nature of art. The duet, "O Mimi, tu piu non torni (Oh, Mimi, you will never return)," sung by Thompson and James Busterud (Marcello), and the aria, "Vecchia zimarra (Old coat)," sung by Matthew Lau (Colline), were among the night's most evocative moments.

Busterud's Marcello was irresistably likable. He and Jamie Baer (Musetta) proved to be a much more interesting and believable couple than Thompson and Boucher (as is often the case with La Boheme), and Baer showed us in Act II why "Quando m'en vo (When I walk by)" is one of the most popular songs in all of opera. Act II was, generally, a great deal of fun and a favorite with the audience. It ended with a tableau vivant in which all of the players froze in characteristic poses while the orchestra played a rousing fanfare.

Overall, the last half of Friday night's performance of La Boheme was much better than the first -- an indication that, despite its rather mediocre opening, this tour may still have the potential for excellence.

"I did enjoy it," Batchelor said. "It wasn't really disappointing -- it just wasn't really exceptional, either."