La Boheme

This is one of the better DVD releases of the Met’s unique enormously accepted live HD moviecasts. The cast sings well, the production is one of Franco Zefferelli’s less tacky creations, and La Boheme remains one of the singer-proof operas. Puccini’s music is so affecting that even rather average singers can build the experience animated.
Fortunately this La Boheme has assembled a cast that is far from average. I saw the production in its opening night with the same cast. I found both Vargas and Gheorghiu’s deny to be a tad itsy-bitsy for the colossal cavernous Met, but one cannot argue with the beauty of their voices. Gheorghiu’s declare in particular has a sad, husky, fragile sounding timbre that gives us the illusion of a consumptive. Her snow-white skin and dismal murky hair also adds to the appearance of someone who has been sick for quite awhile, although for my money no one was ever able to eye as believably consumptive as Teresa Stratas in the earlier Met video with Jose Carreras. She has some current phrasing during “Si mi chiamano Mimi” — she seems certain to lift the aria at a slower plod than the conductor, and she also eschews the former portamenti. Vargas’s reveal is shining, ardent, and he’s a sensitive musician. He hits the high C in “Che gelida manina” delicately and if his divulge is a bit too cramped and lyric for the role he level-headed always sounds radiant. Ainhoa Arteta makes no particular impression as Musetta but she is great better than the screechy, over-the-hill Scotto in the Stratas/Carreras video.

Buy,Download, Or Stream Puccini: La Boheme! Click Here
Dramatically, this Boheme does not work as well. Ramon Vargas is another in a long line of pleasantly chunky and somewhat phlegmatic Rodolfos. (Caruso, Bjoerling, Tucker, Pavarotti all were plot too pudgy to be entirely believable as a starving poet.) But he makes Rodolfo sweet and likable, which is more crucial than looks. More problematic is Angela Gheorghiu’s Mimi. Her stage persona has a definite hardness, and she makes Mimi a rather aggressive pursuer of Rodolfo. She says backstage that Mimi “is not innocent” but she goes too far in the other direction, in my understanding. The small she enters the garret, swaying her hips knowingly and with a somewhat smug smile, you know that this Mimi probably blew out her candle on purpose to meet Rodolfo. There is no reason Mimi should be a wilting innocent flower (after all, she does supposedly hurry off with a rich count, and early reviews of La Boheme upbraided Puccini for celebrating loose morals), but to fabricate her so openly seductive kind of ruins the charm of the opening scene between Rodolfo and Mimi. At its best, it suggests two young people falling in adore unexpectedly. These complaints are mostly in the first two acts. By the third act, Gheorghiu’s Mimi has turned believably tragic. She is less fussy, and exclaim to let her state and the music scream for itself. The Act 3 quartet is very affecting.
So in other words, another pleasurable addition to the Boheme video collection. Of the videos I have I like the Australian Opera production, and the Scotto/Pavarotti video. But as usual, Puccini’s opera is the true winner. There is a reason why audiences all over the world never tire of this simple epic of boy meets girl, boy loses girl. It’s a perfect opera.
Note: to retort to the review above, I did abet opening night but I also watched the moviecast. This review is I guess based on a mix of my enjoy memories of opening night AND the moviecast.

Posted in: adios amigo,adios amigos,jim reeves,my way,povel ramel