Argentina Hotels Travel :: La Boheme

Argentina Hotels Travel - La Boheme

List Price: $23.98
Argentina Hotels Travel Price: $62.00
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: EMI Classics

Average Customer Rating:

Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0724356775329
Format: Limited Edition
Label: EMI Classics
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: EMI Classics
Release Date: 2002-04-09
Studio: EMI Classics

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Editorial Reviews:

Every so often in the recording industry, there's a miracle, and this is one of them. This 1956 recording was organized quickly in New York, not on the heels of a stage performance and not even with a noted orchestra. All the right singers were in town at the same time--some popping in to sing a few bars before heading for the airport--and the result is the single greatest recording of this oft-recorded opera. The leads--Victoria de Los Angeles and Jussi Björling--would make it special in any case. But Robert Merrill is excellent and Lucine Amara is a light-voiced, French-sounding, ultra-stylish Musetta. This is also the only full-length Puccini recording by the great conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. A classic. --David Patrick Stearns

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: One of the two best recordings
Comment: In a recent BBC3 "CD Review" broadcast, Alexandra Wilson made a gallant attempt to achieve the impossible task of choosing amongst forty or so recordings of "La Boheme" - and while I agreed with her ultimate choice of the Beecham recording with Bjorling, Merrill and De Los Angeles, I have rather more regard for the discarded Karajan recording simply because Pavarotti's voice, in its prime, as she herself put it, "runs through the recording like a golden seam". The rest of the cast is wonderful, too, although Karajan's love for the score is manifested in a rather deliberately "beautiful" approach and thereby slightly undercuts the drama. I cannot be without either recording of this eternally youthful and moving opera, and although Freni was captured in slightly fresher, more limpid voice in the earlier Schippers set, for me Gedda is absolutely no substitute for Pavarotti at his best. Both Merrill and Panerai are infinitely touching in the great duet "O Mimi, tu piu non torni" and although Beecham's recording is a little rough around the edges, he conveys greater energy and fun in the slapstick scenes while, Karajan extracts slightly more pathos from the last act, in better sound. Acquire both sets for the complete experience - although you can also now acquire it on Naxos at bargain price, remastered to Naxos' usual high standard.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great Recording!!
Comment: This is truly one of the great recordings of La Bòheme... That said, I question the "Re-Mastered" claim on the page. For one thing, the CD case clearly states "MONO". And then there's that dreary sound quality...sounding a bit distorted on the top end... Nonetheless, it's such a brilliant rendition that one soon forgets the more technical aspect...

Customer Rating:

Summary: LO TROVO SCINTILLANTE
Comment: Away with revisionist deviationism, say I. For most of my life Beecham's has been regarded as the Boheme to end all Bohemes, and I maintain resolutely that it still is that, for all the advances in recording techniques since 1956. The digital remastering dates from as recently as 2002, but Beecham used to obtain very good technical quality of sound for his day, and for the usual reason that he demanded it and there was no use in arguing. I also offer the following consideration as regards sound-quality - when it is a matter of large forces, say a symphony orchestra let alone the battalions necessary for grand opera, the nature of the sound that can be offered to us in our sitting-rooms simply cannot resemble other than distantly their real sound in the concert hall or opera house. The effect resides to some extent on power of suggestion over the listener's ear, and although I routinely welcome every extra ounce of sound-quality that I can get, in the last resort once a certain level of quality and realism has been attained anything over and above that is secondary so far as I am concerned.

In fact I thought that this set started very promisingly in the matter of `real presence'. The sound is quite forward and it `socked it to me' quite effectively. However as matters advanced the general impact (in the technical sense) seemed to recede somewhat. I believe that this is due in part to the style of the performance. I never heard a more beautiful or affecting Che gelida manina than I do here, but I have certainly heard many that were more vigorous. I believe, simply, that Beecham and Bjorling have decided to ration the quota of `can belto' in their presentation, and it is let loose principally in duets and ensembles. This in turn, I'm inclined to think, is of a piece with the policy on tempi, which have drawn comment for being on the slow side. By way of a comparison in that respect I replayed my old Toscanini LP set, and the difference is admittedly marked, with Beecham taking 107 minutes and Toscanini, renowned and to some extent properly renowned for fast tempi, clocking out after barely 95. Without going through more exhaustive comparisons I suppose I can take Toscanini as representing the opposite extreme, which leaves me wondering how significant the issue of tempi can really be. At any speed this is a distinctly short 4-act opera, and I hope that anxiety regarding the extra 12 minutes is not a matter of the pace of modern life and fitting in La Boheme between other commitments, much as Sir Malcolm Sargent was suspected of speeding up symphonic finales in the interests of finishing before the 9 O'Clock News.

Myself, I could take any amount of musicianship like this. The performance came about at all through the alertness of a musical agent who spotted that Beecham, de los Angeles and Bjorling were all simultaneously in New York, and with awesome efficiency an orchestra and chorus together with a supporting cast were conjured up. It would have been worth hearing this Boheme for the sake of Merrill, Corena and above all Tozzi alone, as anyone ought to concur who has heard Tozzi's colossal `For He is like a refiner's fire' in Beecham's Messiah. However what most of us want it for above all is of course that sublime trinity. De los Angeles had possibly the loveliest soprano voice of her generation, and Bjorling, whose voice will bear comparison with any later tenor I can think of, even Pavarotti, did not live long enough to leave us the legacy we would have wanted. When I say, not for the only time, that I think Beecham the greatest conductor of the 20th century what I mean is this. His work has about it a peculiar sense of God-given grace (Beecham was of course an unbeliever), an aura of pure and abstract music, that is irrespective of the `weight' of the compositions he handles. He did not turn out complete Beethoven cycles (largely because he did not greatly like Beethoven) but he cast that special radiance on music of all kinds, finding and even sometimes implanting a shining particle at the core of works that had seemed base metal in other hands. At the very pinnacle of musical creation, this is the characteristic with which Mozart invests both his most obviously awesome inspirations and his seemingly lightest pieces.

I am in no hurry to get to the end of La Boheme, but there is another aspect to the matter too. The libretto is witty and the self-mocking banter of the penniless artists in their Parisian garret requires a certain kind of sophistication in the way it is sung and acted. When I ask myself Which conductor is most in tune with this kind of idiom, I reflect that greatly as I revere, say, Furtwaengler I can hardly envisage him in this context, and indeed for this question to be answered it only has to be asked. I could point also to Beecham's handling of Puccini's orchestration, which he admired to the extent of rating it more highly than Strauss's, suggesting as I do so that you will hear good enough sound-reproduction in this set to appreciate what it is that differentiates Beecham from, say, Karajan, and which is far more important than any niceties of digital recording.

I have never yet wept at La Boheme, because to me it is not art imitating life but just Italian opera being itself. The gale of life blows high among this community of impoverished creators, but clearly they need youth on their side to sustain such a precarious existence, while in the meantime l'haleine de la mort (in Maeterlinck's chilling phrase) is there to envelop the weakest of them, catching the rest by surprise. Vita brevis, ars longa, and this is a recording for the ages.

Customer Rating:

Summary: I must say it...
Comment: Nearly everyone praises this famous Boheme recording as the best ever. I think it is necessary, however, to make the important distinction between an outstanding recorded performance (which this is), and an excellent recording. This mono recording, sadly, was made shortly before the dawn of stereo, and therefore does not offer anything even close to the lush sound that modern ears are accustomed to. Mono is to stereo as black & white is to color. As a result, I consider this recording to be somewhat of a museum piece, albeit a beautiful one. I enjoy it, but it isn't my first choice because the sound does not fill the room or my head the way stereo does. Alternatives? Many people consider the London/Decca recording with Freni and Pavarotti to be the best, but I find Karajan's tempos too slow and his overall interpretation less than Italianate. My favorite is the realistic RCA with Leinsdorf conducting a cast led by Moffo and Tucker.

Customer Rating:

Summary: The Alternative to Karajan's Bohème
Comment: This is in my opinion one of the best recordings of Puccini's opera 'La bohème', along with Karajan Freni-Pavarotti recording on DECCA. The orchestra is rich and Beecham's direction is masterful. The wonderful instrumental work goes its own way despite of what is going on on the stage, like if Beecham was more interested in the singing, but not in the acting, in what happens on stage. The Catalan soprano Victòria dels Àngels is a perfect Mimì, sweet and fragile, and she finds a perfect balance in the warm and fierce Rodolfo of Björling, making a good couple Mimì-sick woman / Rodolfo-vigorous man. Merrill sings very well and his role is very well represented in here.
This is a remastered edition in the wonderful Great Recordings of the Century collection by EMI, and again, highly recommended along with the Karajan version. Also, while I am writing this review, the amazon price is $13,97, which is an absolute bargain! So perhaps this is your first choice for Puccini's Bohème.
Bottomline: Along with Karajan's, this is the Bohème to go. And it is a bargain! Thanks for reading.
P.S. If you find my review helpful, vote YES (It does not mean you agree. It just means you found it helpful). You can read all my other reviews if you wish to. I modestly write them to help people form an opinion about movies, music and books, but if nobody reads them (if you don't vote I do not know if you did) there is no point in writing them.

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