Puccini - La Boheme / Pavarotti, Scotto, Niska, Wixell, Plishka, Levine, Metropolitan Opera (1977)

Scotto- The Queen of the Night

This production was filmed live at the met in 1977 and it's an affecting one.
I had seen Renata Scotto perform as Musetta in another production with Carreras and that performance was quite memorable so i really looked forward to seeing her as Mimi.
Scotto performs from the soul and from the heart and it's a very moving experience to hear and see her perform.
Her singing is so poetic with such sensitive artful display of dynamics to convey the words she is singing.
This is a performance not about ego but about art.
There's a moment in the final scene when she's in bed and everybody has left and she slowly rises with such fragile strain out of the bed to stand and it's simply heartbreaking.
Bravo Ms. Scotto.
You bring tears to my eyes.
Pavarotti starts the opera concentrating mainly on vocal technical delivery then starts to assert himself emotionally in the part.
The golden tone and technique is there in full display and he does an admirable job at acting as well.
I don't think that he's the most artful of tenors and what i mean by that is that he could add more meaning to the text by phrasing more and using a wider array of dynanics more often.
If you listen and watch Scotto's portrayel then you can clearly see the difference in levals of artistry.
This takes nothing away from the great tone and technique that he had but merely states that the performance though very fine could be improved upon musically and dramatic wise.
See Carlo Bergonzi who may not have the golden tone of Pavarotti or the power to hit high c's like pavarotti but made up for that with a more complete artistic delivery of their character.
The rest of the cast is fine even though Marcello (Wixell) is somewhat bland in his portrayel and could use a little more expressiveness acting and vocal wise and Musetta (Niska) could have been more bombastic especially in the scene at the restaurant.
The stage production is pleasing to the eye though not as extravagant as something produced by say Franco Zeffirelli.
These are just a few criticisms on a performance that is very satisfying on the whole with a restored picture that is slightly grainy but totally acceptable.
The crowd is a most loving crowd as they go nuts at the end of musetta's waltz as well as most of the highlights.
So if you're looking for a dvd Boheme then this quality production will do the trick but be prepared to cry as you experience the grand artistry of Renata Scotto.
Truly the queen of the night.

Oscar Fernandez
July 7, 2008

La Boheme

A marvelous version of this great opera. The 'young' Pavoratti's voice simply soars. I saw the new Met version recently which was excellent, but no comparison in tenors. What a loss too soon when he died. May 9, 2008

Quintessential Pavarotti

I purchased this DVD for my parents, avid opera fans. If you love a classic love story with the most melodic music and are new to opera this is the DVD to buy. As you probably are aware the movie "Rent" was loosely based on this opera. Although that can't hold a candle to the origianl. Pavarotti and Scotto are perfect together and production and set were top notch. If you've never seen or heard an opera before I highly recommend this as your first. It's timeless and worth seeing. March 5, 2008

Puccini - La Boheme

As a lover of opera and Pavaraotti, I wanted this dvd very much. I was very pleased with the quality of it and look forward to viewing it again and again. March 4, 2008

La Boheme/Pavorotti, Scotto, Nkska, Wixell, Plishka, Levine

The visual reproduction is fair the audio is also fair, not nearly up to the quality of recent productions, but it's still ( a young) Pararotti and Scotto, et al and it's still Boheme. Could be better, but still very enjoyable. December 21, 2007

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