Puccini - La Boheme [The Metropolitan Opera HD Live 2008] [DVD]

MET gave a series of very high quality live opera video for cinema/TV boardcast. Il Barbiere is one, here we have another one.
This production is not totally new but it looks like a new one because the color is so fresh and framing is very professional as a movie.

Vargas was a cute big boy and has a really lovely voice. Gheorghiu was the star of the night. Her voice was a bit too heavy for ActI and she was a bit overacting when singing her aria, however she was so beautiful and very convincing in later duet. She and this production show that Mimi is not a simple mind girl, but an brave woman who dares to love and to ask for love, even til last minute of life. In the later acts she was perfect and really touching. Her acting in 4th act was heartbreaking.

Among all videos of this opera my favorite is 1979 La Scala one under C. Kleiber's conducting. However that video doesn't have good enough sound and screen quality, not to mention you can't really get that from Amazon. For other videos, some are too old style, some are good singing but bad production... This one is in general the highest quality one.
Whether you are already an opera fan or a new person, this video can give you a lot of fun (or tears because of being touched).

I assumed that Angela Gheorghiu singing the role of Mimi would be enough to carry the production through, no matter who took the role of Rudolfo... in this case Ramon Vargas. I underestimated! Between them they, and not forgetting the rest of the cast, give a heart-rending performance that leaves the viewer as emotionally exhausted as they all obviously are at the end of the final act. Bravo! Magnificent! Puccini would approve.

Any reasonably decent performance of Bohéme will be so emotionally overwhelming that it will be very hard to be objective about it. But what might work well in the theatre may not seem to be quite so successful after repeated viewings on DVD. So it is perhaps right to pick up on one or two shortcomings, which are relatively minor when compared with the otherwise outstanding merits of this production.

Firstly the good things, though. This is a typical "Met" production in the best sense: good sets, costumes, principals, and chorus (and there are plenty of them). Now and then the conductor takes things a tiny bit too slowly for my taste but that doesn't detract much from what is a very fine performance in the pit. The acting is good, especially given that what might work well in the theatre doesn't always work too well on the small screen. It would be interesting to know whether anything was said to the cast about the fact that this performance was being recorded. Ludovic Tézier (Marcello) and Angela Gheorghiu (Mimi) in particular make quite a few tiny gestures which I would have thought wouldn't be perceptible to the audience but are very effective when seen in close-up. In fact Gheorghiu is the star of the show; she looks right, acts right and sings beautifully. That is not to take anything away from the other members of the cast, though, who are excellent in every way. It is pleasing to see Paul Plishka, a long-time stalwart of the Met, doubling the small parts of Benoit and Alcindoro. It is not his fault that he is not wholly successful in the second role, of which more anon.

So what's wrong with this production? As I have said, not much. To start with Alcindoro, though; I feel that he is let down by the camera work and/or the production itself. Although his is a small part a lot of fun can be drawn from the character. In other productions which I have seen he is physically bullied by Musetta and the Bohemians and, at the end of the Act, is presented with everyone's bill. Such opportunities are missed here. He isn't helped here, either, by the fact that he seems to get a bit lost amongst the crowd; mainly due, I think, to poor camera work.

Other reviewers have commented on the fact that at the end of each scene we are taken behind the curtain to see what is going on. Whilst this is undoubtedly interesting it is questionable as to how many times one would want to see this. Some might find it irritating, others not so. And after all you can simply skip through these sections if you don't want to see them yet again.

Having criticised the camera work I am sorry to say that the sound recording isn't perfect either. There are one or two occasions when the singer's voice changes suddenly when he or she turns round, or moves across the stage. This is presumably caused by the voice being picked up by different microphones but I would have thought it was something which ought to have been sorted out post-production.

All of the above detracts a little from what could otherwise be a virtually perfect performance. But then, perfection is something which can only be strived for but never actually achieved (although the Dessay/Florez account of "La Fille du Régiment" comes pretty close - but I digress). I find it hard to imagine that in the real world this performance of Bohéme on DVD will be bettered.

This is a "five star minus" performance and is heartily recommended.