Puccini: La Boheme

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8553151

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099415125

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: PUCCINI

Release Date: 04 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 2

Barcode: 636943125229

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: PUCCINI

Description
Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924)La Boh?¿me (Highlights)Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi IllicaMim?¼ ................................. Luba OrgonasovaRodolfo .............................. Jonathan WelchMusetta ............................... Carmen GonzalesMarcello ...............................Fabio PreviatiSchaunard ............................Boaz SenatorColline ................................Ivan UrbasAlcindoro ........................... Jiri SulzenkoSergente ............................. Stanislav BenackaSlovak Philharmonic ChorusBratislava Children's ChoirCzecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)Will HumburgGiacomo Puccini was born in Lucca in 1858 into a family with long-establishedmusical traditions extending back at least to the early eighteenth century. Itwas natural that he should follow this tradition and become a musician, andafter the death of his father, when the boy was five, it was arranged that heshould inherit the position of organist at the church of S. Martino, whichmeanwhile would be held for him by his uncle. He was trained as a chorister andas an organist, and only turned to more ambitious composition at the age ofseventeen. A performance of Verdi's opera Aida in Pisa in 1876 inspiredoperatic aspirations, which could only be pursued adequately at a major musicalcentre. Four years later he was able to enter the conservatory in Milan,assisted financially by an uncle and by a scholarship. There his teachers wereAntonio Bazzini, director of the conservatory from 1882 and now chieflyremembered by other violinists for one attractive addition to their repertoire,and Amilcare Ponchielli, then near the end of his career.Puccini's first opera was Le villi, an operatic treatment of a subjectbetter known nowadays from the ballet Giselle by Adam. It failed to winthe competition for which it had been entered, but won, instead, a staging,through the agency of Boito, and publication by Ricordi, who commissioned theopera Edgar, produced at La Scala in 1889 to relatively little effect. Itwas in 1893 that Puccini won his first great success with his version of theAbbe Prevost's Manon Lescaut, a work that established him as a possiblesuccessor to Verdi. La Boh?¿me followed in 1896, Tosca in 1900 andMadama Butterfly in 1904. His last opera, Turandot, was leftunfinished at the time of his death in 1924.La Boh?¿me is based on a novel by Henry Murger, Sc?¿nes de la vie deBoh?¿me, and a play derived from it by Murger and Theodore Barri?¿re.Murger, of German origin, lived a life of poverty in Paris comparable to that ofhis characters and died there in 1861. Puccini began work on the new opera, withhis librettists Giacosa and Illica, in 1893, a fact that he revealed whenLeoncavallo, who had chosen the same subject, urged his prior claims on it.Leoncavallo's work was eventually performed a year after Puccini's and proved norival to it in popular esteem. There were difficulties at first in deciding theprecise form of the action and the c

Description
Giocomo Puccini (1858-1924)La Boh?â?¿mePrior to the introduction of the long-playing record in1948, The Decca Record Company in London had recorded just one complete opera,Dido and Aeneas in 1936. Thecompany had begun recording in February 1929 with its first release in June thesame year. During the 1930s, however, it was seen very much as a minorcompetitor to its main UK rival, EMI. In the immediate post World War II era,the company undertook an impressive programme of new classical recordings withtheir newly introduced Full Frequency Range Recording technique, which had beendeveloped as a result of war-time research requirements. The new LP era wouldbring the Decca/London label into the league of big players in the world ofclassical recorded music.This 1951 recording of La Boh?â?¿me was the first of Decca'srecordings of complete Italian operas, made in the Rome Accademia Nazionale diSanta Cecilia. The hall in which the recording was made is long and narrow,with a very high ceiling and a fine balcony, which also contains seats. Thevenue proved ideal for mono recording with the control room in adjoining roomon the same ground floor level. Thesinging throughout the recording displays an uncommon taste and intelligence inthat all the performers observe the composer's dynamic markings of pianissimoand dimuendo. Much of the credit for this attention to detail must come fromErede's careful rehearsals. In addition the engineers handle the balancebetween voices and orchestra sensitively, a point not always achieved in monoonly recording. TheItalian soprano Renata Tebaldi (b. 1922) had begun recording for the Company in1949 and had by now an exclusive contract. She was one of the most significantItalian lyric sopranos of the time and would enjoy a recording career spanningalmost 25 years. Her first recording of La Boh?â?¿me (she would recorded the workin stereo eight years later) is notable for the youthful freshness and richnessof her voice. She also conveys much delicacy in her interpretation of Mim?â?¼,especially in the first act. The death scene is also movingly portrayed. Theglamorous Viennese soprano Hilde Gueden (1919-1988), another of Decca's youngand up-and-coming exclusive artists, was an unexpected choice for the r?â??le ofMusetta but proves inspired casting as hers is not the usual shrill Italiansoprano voice so often heard in the part. Later she would gravitate to the roleof Mim?â?¼. She would later sing the r?â??les of Musetta and Mim?â?¼ in successiveseasons at the Metropolitan during 1952 and 1953. The tenor Giacinto Prandelli (b. 1914) was one of a number of newItalian tenors to emerge after the end of the War in Europe, having made hisdebut in 1942. If not endowed with the most mellifluous of voices, he alwaysus
Tracklisting
Tracklisting