La Bohème [IMPORT]

Giacomo Puccini (Composer), Tullio Serafin (Conductor), Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra (Orchestra), Attilio d'Orazi (Performer), Carlo Bergonzi (Performer), Cesare Siepi (Performer), Ettore Bastianini (Performer), Fernando Corena (Performer), Gianna D'Angelo (Performer), Giorgio Onesti (Performer), Piero de Palma (Performer), Renata Tebaldi (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Attilio d'Orazi, Carlo Bergonzi, Cesare Siepi, Ettore Bastianini, Fernando Corena, et al.
• Orchestra: Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra
• Conductor: Tullio Serafin
• Composer: Giacomo Puccini
• Audio CD (September 2, 1996)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Decca Import
• ASIN: B000009M5E
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #94,771 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE OPERA, THE SINGERS,THE CD SET TO GET!, June 26, 2000

By	Armindo (Greece) - See all my reviews

All singers simply superb! There is no doubt that Tebaldi is the perfect Mimi together with the ideal lyric tenor Bergonzi for our jealous Rodolfo.Tebaldi is supreme in All Arias and Duets.Even without reading the libretto her singing will make you cry (personal experience).Such performances make me consider her (together with Montserrat Caballe)as the greatest soprano of the century.D'Angelo and Bastianini form our perfect funny couple of the cast.Just listen to them whenever they argue..the perfect Match! On the whole, THE BEST RECORDING OF THE BEST PUCCINI GET IT!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Queen Renata, December 13, 2002

By	Meghan Goria (Providence, RI United States) - See all my reviews

All I can say about this album is that Renata Tebaldi is the greatest Mimi I've ever come across (and I have 6 copies of Boheme). Her lyricism is unbeatable. I cannot listen to this album without weeping. BUY THIS NOW!!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Performance, Spectacular Sound, Low Price, January 15, 2002

By	Jaime J. Weinman (Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Others have commented on the performance. There are things I could imagine being done better -- Serafin, while generally excellent, can be a bit syrupy; I'd prefer a less thin-voiced and soubrettish Musetta than D'Angelo; the Schaunard muffs a couple of good comic opportunities. But overall, this has as high a standard of performance as any BOHEME recording -- and the best part is, it's an ALL-ITALIAN performance (or nearly all; I think D'Angelo may have been Italian-American), and it really does help, especially in the comic scenes, that all the singers know what they're singing about.

Next, the sound. It took me a couple of listens to get used to the style of sound used here, but I soon came to be impressed by it, and finally to love it. The singers are not really distant; it's just that they're recorded in somewhat realistic perspective, as you might get in the opera house. This creates a real feeling of a stage picture, helped by the fact that the recording was "staged" in the studio: Most of the sound effects were done simultaneously with the music rather than being superimposed afterwards, and the stereo stage movement is meant to simulate a stage performance, so that you hear not only entrances and exits, but movements that correspond to all sorts of stage actions (though of course the singers are usually dead-center for their arias!). The sense of atmosphere conjured up by producer Erik Smith is quite phenomenal: The beginning of act 3, with the offstage and onstage action played out in differing perspectives, makes you almost feel like you're there watching and >feeling< it happen before you. Many audiophile friends of mine consider this the best-sounding opera recording ever made. I'm no audiophile, but I'm inclined to agree; in sonic terms it outclasses even Decca's Freni-Pavarotti recording, and runs rings around most of today's claustrophobic digital recordings.

Even at full price, this would be my first choice among BOHEME recordings; at this price, it's one of the great bargains in the operatic catalogue (though you'll have to find a libretto and translation somewhere else).