La Boheme

(Warner Music)

Review by James Anthony

This is one of the most popular operas ever written and, for my mind, deservedly so.

It is filled with drama, romance, heavenly music as well as stirring lyrics and is a welcome regular guest on the stereo.

Set in the fashionably poor Bohemian artist community of last-century Paris, La Boheme follows the lives of a small group of impoverished creative types.

Rodolfo, an unpublished writer, Marcello, a painter and their lady loves Mimi, a flower seller, Musetta and their various friends and acquaintances.

This ageing version of La Boheme is from the Royal Opera Covent Garden in 1982 and stars Ileana Cotrubas, Neil Shicoff, Thomas Allen, Marilyn Zschau and Gwynne Howell.

Cotrubas and Shicoff are particularly fine as Mimi and Rodolfo and the marvellous performances with Che Gelida Manina, Si. Mi Chiamano Mimi and O Soava Funciulla will have you trying to work out if Giacomo Puccini was blessed by God when he wrote them.

The sets are terrific and the whole production is first-class.

The transfer on to DVD, however, leaves something to be desired with the images often being too soft and fuzzy and the contrast is lacking with what should be deep black shadows turning into murky greys.

Still, if you are an extreme purist, close your eyes and just float to the heavens on the exquisite music.

Conclusion: Performance 85%