Puccini - La Boheme

Review "We get a Latinate passionate Rodolfo and a more delicately responsive Mimì, who blossoms under the warmth of the other's yearning into a full declaration of love at the end." -- Classic FM Product Description The hottest soprano/tenor combination in opera today follow up their sensational pairing in "La Traviata", portraying another immortal star-crossed couple in Puccini's "La Bohème." A youthful cast bring a special authenticity and enthusiasm to this timeless tale of bohemians in Paris. Recorded in concert, with the excitement and spontaneity of a live performance; but in studio-like conditions, for superior sound quality. Classic FM raved about the performances: "We get a Latinate passionate Rodolfo and a more delicately responsive Mimì, who blossoms under the warmth of the other's yearning into a full declaration of love at the end." The perfect new recording of his most popular opera with which to celebrate the Puccini year (150th anniversary of his birth in 1858) About the Artist A frenzy of enthusiasm bordering on hysteria, exorbitant ticket prices and increased interest in the individual's private life - these are by no means solely a present-day phenomenon but have been part of the wider reception history of opera ever since famous 18th-century castratos and prima donnas such as Farinelli, Caffarelli, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni strutted their stuff and cast their spell on audiences with their incomparable artistry. Today no less than then, outstanding musical achievements are still capable of fascinating us, the world of opera in particular producing a fan culture otherwise found only in pop music and inspiring journalists and marketing strategists to ransack their thesauruses in search of superlatives. When the Hamburgbased magazine Der Spiegel hailed Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón as "opera's current dream couple" and the American critic Martin Bernheimer spoke of the "stardust twins", their expressions signalled an attempt to use the limited resources of language to do justice to a phenomenon which, artistically speaking, is altogether exceptional. In the light of the dazzling successes that Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón had previously enjoyed with other singers, it made sense for them to appear together onstage. It was a decision that was to prove felicitous in the extreme: at the 2003 Munich Opera Festival they delighted opera lovers and received endless ovations in La traviata; and two years later they appeared in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in Los Angeles and in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in Vienna. It was no doubt because of the tremendous enthusiasm that had greeted these performances that both singers gave such fascinating and moving accounts of the unusual relationship between Violetta and Alfredo at the joint Salzburg Festival début in 2005, their sensational success recalling the great moments of Karajan's reign in Salzburg and leading to further joint engagements: there were more performances of Roméo et Juliette, this time at the Vienna State Opera, then Massenet's Manon in Los Angeles and later at the Berlin State Opera and a number of concerts, including the spectacular open-air event at the Waldbühne in Berlin that was televised world- wide. A further high point was achieved when their first joint CD featuring love duets from eight different operas was released. Among the Italian operas whose popularity remains undimmed after more than a century, La Bohème undoubtedly looms large, and so it was only a question of time before Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón were seen and heard together as Mimì and Rodolfo - each of them had already appeared separately in Puccini's immortal melodrama, Villazón on the floating stage at Bregenz in 2002, when he had been able to display his boisterous talents as an actor, while Netrebko also knew the opera from the standpoint of Musetta, a role she had sung in many theatres including the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 2004. They finally appeared together as Mimì and Rodolfo in 2006: first in St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre where they scored a tremendous success; then at the Met, in a production by the vastly experienced Franco Zeffirelli. Martin Bernheimer complimented Villazón on his "genuinely ardent, uncommonly boyish, musically sensitive Rodolfo", while Fred Kirschnit in the New York Sun described Anna Netrebko's voice as "its usual radiant self, full, warm, polished, dexterous, enticing, enriching" and even observed that "Her initial note alone in the duet of `O soave fanciulla' was worth the price of admission". In April 2007 "opera's dream couple" appeared together in Munich, where they gave three concert performances of La Bohème with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Bertrand de Billy, causing the hearts of music lovers to beat a little faster. These performances are documented both in the present release and in a film version of the opera that wa
ASIN: B0017LU05G
VSKU: DBV.B0017LU05G.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Giacomo Puccini|Bayerischen Rundfunks|Bertrand De Billy|Anna Netrebko|Rolando Villazon|Boaz Daniel|Nicole Cabell|Vitalij Kowaljow|Stephane Degout
Binding: Audio cd
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case may show wear and may be in library packaging. Ships Fast!