User Reviews

La Boheme is one of my favourite operas, high-spirited, romantic, passionate and incredibly poignant with gorgeous music. My favourite La Boheme this production from San Francisco is not, like with the 1988(Freni and Pavarotti), 1965(Freni and Raimondi), 1977(Scotto and Pavarotti), 1982(Cotrubas and Shicoff) and 1982(Stratas and Carreras), but it is still a performance that I enjoyed immensely. It is visually stunning, with a suitably cold attic setting and desolate Act 3. Cafe Momus is colourful and not too bare(not like the 2005 Zurich production). The costumes are tailored beautifully also. The staging is very well done, the scene with Benoit and the Bohemians in Act 1 is wonderfully teasing and the final act is heart-breaking. The orchestral playing is stylish and lush particularly in the strings, and Nicola Luisotti's conducting shows poetry, nuances and a love for the score. The chorus don't really have a big role in the opera, but are animated and well balanced on the whole. Angela Gheorghiu is a moving Mimi, with very expressive and darkly beautiful singing. Her high notes are thankfully not as overly-restrained as they have been recently. Piotr Beczala's Rodolfo is an ardent and passionate lover as he should be, and sings with a honeyed lyrical tone. Quinn Kelsey's Marcello is a sympathetic friend, an overall powerful presence and a scornful ex-lover with a burnished baritone voice. Norah Ansellem is very witty and later humble as Musetta, her singing is stylishly phrased, pleasant in tone and even with a couple of under-pitch climatic notes carries well over the orchestra. Parpignol, Alcindoro and Benoit are characterful for small roles, Schaunard has some funny moments in Act 2 that come across well and Colline is appropriately noble. All in all, moving and beautifully sung. 9/10 Bethany Cox