Puccini - La Bohème / Freni, Pavarotti, Harwood, Ghiaurov, Karajan

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(5 stars) - excellent
This is a terrific recording. Pavarotti and Freni sing beautifully and Karajan's conducting is quite sublime.

(5 stars) - As good as it gets
This recording hardly needs another 5 star review, but after becoming reacquainted with it today I must offer my two cents. Pavarotti and Freni, in their vocal primes, give heartfelt performances that capture all the joy, melancholy, sadness and nostalgia that is this opera. But just as importantly, Herbert von Karajan's highly pictorial conducting allows the orchestra to become as much a participant as the principal singers. Except for short crowd scenes in Act II, this is a small scaled, very human work and the lush sound of the Berlin Philharmonic might be an obstacle to some listeners, but rest assured under von Karajan the orchestra plays as nimbly as a string quartet. Although Elizabeth Harwood might not be everyone's first choice as Musetta she's plenty good enough. This has to be one of the very finest performances of this work ever recorded.

(5 stars) - I don't see how this one could be bettered
Although some of the most ardent opera buffs will still prefer Beecham, this is really the version to turn to for most people. This is quite simply Pavarotti's best role, full of vigour and poetry. If one really wished to find something to pick on, it would perhaps be that he only rarely seems willing to sing quietly, but the feeling (in particular the desperation) and warmth he brings to the role is, as far as I know, unmatched. Freni also, in my view, outperforms e.g. Callas, at least in terms of sheer beauty of sound, although a case could be made that Callas is the superior interpreter. Panerai and Harwood are excellent as well.

But if there is anything sweeping all competition aside, it is Karajan. He has simply got it all, focus on orchestral beauty as well as a taut grip on the drama and momentum. Put that together with splendid sound, and you've got a winning set. A must.

(5 stars) - Pure magic
When you compare Freni with the light roles that she used to sing in the 60s and this Freni, you will think they are two different singers. But what is truly amazed is the fact that not only her voice changed, but she became bar none to one of the hardest heavy lyric soprano roles ever: Mimi. And when she has Pavarotti next to her, it is like heaven. But, wait... Who is conducting is Karajan, unarguably one of the best puccinian ever. This is a record to listen, re-listen, re-listen, re-listen until I don't know when...

(5 stars) - One of the two best recordings
In a recent BBC3 "CD Review" broadcast, Alexandra Wilson made a gallant attempt to achieve the impossible task of choosing amongst forty or so recordings of "La Boheme" - and while I agreed with her ultimate choice of the Beecham recording with Bjorling, Merrill and De Los Angeles, I have rather more regard for this discarded Karajan recording simply because Pavarotti's voice, in its prime, as she herself put it, "runs through the recording like a golden seam". The rest of the cast is wonderful, too, although Karajan's love for the score is manifested in a rather deliberately "beautiful" approach and thereby slightly undercuts the drama. I cannot be without either recording of this eternally youthful and moving opera, and although Freni was captured in slightly fresher, more limpid voice in the earlier Schippers set, for me Gedda is absolutely no substitute for Pavarotti at his best. Both Merrill and Panerai are infinitely touching in the great duet "O Mimi, tu piu non torni" and although Beecham's recording is a little rough around the edges, he conveys greater energy and fun in the slapstick scenes while, Karajan extracts slightly more pathos from the last act, in better sound. Acquire both sets for the complete experience.

P.S. I have since had another careful listen to the Callas/Di Stefano/Votto account re-issued on Naxos (see my review) and must concede that it is up there with these two. So, my review header should read: "One of the three best recordings", perhaps?

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