Puccini La bohème

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini

Label: Erato

Magazine Review Date: 5/1988

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: NUM75458

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: O soave fanciulla	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Soprano Federico Davià, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Tenor Richard Cowan, Baritone
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: ~	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Soprano Federico Davià, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Tenor Richard Cowan, Baritone
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Donde lieta uscì (Mimì's farewell)	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Soprano Federico Davià, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Tenor Richard Cowan, Baritone
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Addio dolce svegliare	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Soprano Federico Davià, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Tenor Richard Cowan, Baritone
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Che gelida manina	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Soprano Federico Davià, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Tenor Richard Cowan, Baritone
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Soprano Federico Davià, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Tenor Richard Cowan, Baritone

Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini

Genre:

Opera

Label: Erato

Magazine Review Date: 5/1988

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: NUM75450

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life'	Giacomo Puccini, Composer Angela Maria Blasi, Musetta, Soprano Barbara Hendricks, Mimi, Soprano Federico Davià, Benoit, Bass Federico Davià, Benoit, Bass Federico Davià, Alcindoro, Bass Federico Davià, Alcindoro, Bass Federico Davià, Benoit, Bass Federico Davià, Alcindoro, Bass Francesco Ellero d' Artegna, Colline, Bass French National Orchestra French Radio National Chorus French Radio National Maîtrise Giacomo Puccini, Composer Gino Quilico, Marcello, Baritone James Conlon, Conductor José Carreras, Rodolfo, Tenor Michel Sénéchal, Parpignol, Tenor Richard Cowan, Schaunard, Baritone

Author: Michael Oliver

Although this performance was the basis of Luigi Comencini's film of La boheme (not yet seen in Britain at the time of writing) it was recorded in a studio before shooting began: if contains none of the odd perspectives or sound effects that one associates with 'soundtrack' recordings of opera. The singers are noticeably forward in the sound perspective, however (a film balance rather than a theatre balance, one might say—some of the tape-joins recall the cutting-room rather than the editing channel, too), and since three of the principals have rather bright voices (at least when they force their tone, which all three do occasionally) the overall sound is somewhat tiringly edgy. There is a distinct sense, also, of the voices being 'helped' at times. When the dying Mimi in Act 4 says that her return to Rodolfo has given her new life, the opening-out of Barbara Hendricks's tone is only partly her doing, one feels. With a recording destined to be used by a film-maker, though, I was rather surprised that more was not made of the opportunities offered by Act 2 for an imaginative use of space: the different groups of vendors, passers-by children and their parents are all presented with commendable clarity, but nearly everything is in the foreground, with little sense of movement. I would even have welcomed a few atmospheric sound effects—Mimi hardly ever coughs, even when the score demands it and other characters anxiously remark upon it.
Hendricks would make a touching and sensitive Mimi in a small theatre: the sound is fresh, with an agreeable touch of huskiness at times. In full voice, however, her fast vibrato and a cutting edge to the tone (accentuated by a close recording) rob her music of purity and tranquillity. Carreras sounds more than ever like a lyric tenor of real quality forcing himself into an heroic mould that does not come naturally to him. His first scene with Mimi, the almost crooned close of his ensuing aria and many isolated moments elsewhere have real tenderness and expressiveness to them but he will insist on singing too loudly and the top of his voice continually coarsens under pressure; this, too, the recording painfully intensifies. Blasi is a rather shrill Musetta, at her best not in the hard-driven waltz-song (Conlon's tempos are very fast, almost throughout) but in her quiet, concerned, easily overlooked but crucial lines in Act 4. Quilico has a baritone voice of beauty and flexibility, but in this context at least seems uninvolved with his character, a failing shared by most of the subsidiary singers: the hollow-voiced Colline makes nothing of his great moment in the last act the Schaunard is plummy and a shade precarious and the ensemble scenes for the bella compagnia of Bohemians are well-drilled but quite devoid of exuberance. It is an odd Boheme in which almost the most satisfyingly rounded characterization is offered by the bass doubling Benoit and Alcindoro: Federico Davia actually sings the notes as written, for once, and fills them with comic inventiveness.
A competent but unexceptional Boheme, then, a nice souvenir for those who have enjoyed the film but not really a serious contender for the record collector who has, among others, Solti (RCA) and Karajan (Decca), let alone Beecham and Votto (both EMI), to choose from.'

Excerpts from Puccini's La Bohème

(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: O soave fanciulla

(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: ~

(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Donde lieta uscì (Mimì's farewell)

(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Addio dolce svegliare

(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Che gelida manina

(La) Bohème, 'Bohemian Life', Movement: Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì