"A hundred years from now when opera as we know it is but a distant memory, having long ago been replaced by the product of Andrew Lloyd Webber clones, people will wonder why English speaking audiences ever willingly paid money to hear Italian opera. We didn't understand hardly a word of the language. The singing was absolutely at odds with commonly held conventions of how normal people should sing. It was history lesson. And that is what it is becoming.
But a few recordings are delaying the inevitable. If anyone can find this recording in the year 2103, that person will know why we listened to lyric Italian opera long after it stopped being written. In this recording, Jussi and Victoria give us absolute life and absolute death. Puccini has Beecham to thank for this timeless legacy."
Definitive Boheme
Nancy Solitare | New Haven, CT USA | 11/24/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The unequaled La Boheme of our time.
They keep trying to improve on this and frankly-it will never happen.
Boerling sings effortlessly, never forcing a note, a study in nuanced delivery. His is a very sweet and warm tenor-never harsh,gliding smoothly all around the tenor scale with ease and perfect control.
De LosAngeles is equally fresh-in her prime with her classic and enduring portrayal of Puccini's doomed seamstress. Her voice is strong, beautiful and subtle.
You will not be sorry you made this investment in one of the Maestro's masterpieces.
."
The overall greatest Boheme on records
Pigmalione | New England, USA | 05/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I could say a lot about this recording or nothing at all. I will only say one thing: It is, overall, the best Boheme on records.
Beecham conducted the work over 300 times, and he went over numerous details in the score with the composer. You could, then, say that "musicologically" it is the most important Boheme.
Regardless, it is the most beautiful."
A vocal and emotional blockbuster
James O. Lofthus | 02/22/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"this recording faithfully captures the timeless magic of La Boheme. of course when you have the greatest lyric singers in the world at that time, one would expect nothing less.the only thing better would have been to hear them in the opera house."