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Puccini: La Bohème / Freni, Pavarotti

Puccini / Pavarotti / Freni
Release Date: 11/30/1999 
Label:  Kultur Video   Catalog #: 2  
Composer:  Giacomo Puccini
Performer:  Luciano Pavarotti,  Gino Quillico,  Mirella Freni,  Nicolai Ghiaurov
Conductor:  Tiziano Severini
Orchestra/Ensemble:  San Francisco Opera Orchestra,  San Francisco Opera Chorus
Number of Discs: 1 
Length: 1 Hours 55 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews

Puccini's bittersweet opera of high-spirited bohemians and the doomed love between Rodolfo, the idealistic poet and Mimi, the consumptive flower-maker, is a beautifully balanced series of tableaux depicting the infectious joie de vivre of youth and the tragic waste of disease and separation. The legendary and incomparable partnership of Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti as the two lovers has been captured in this special live recording from stage of the San Francisco Opera. Brian Large has adapted Francesca Zambello's production for video, further illuminating the fascinating interaction of Puccini's characters. Gino Quilico sings Marcello, the colorful and moody painter, whose tempestuous relationship with the flirtatious Musetta (sung Read more by Sandra Pacetti), comically mirrors the more profound love of Rodolfo and Mimi. Nicolai Ghiaurov sings Colline.
Color, 115 minutes.

R E V I E W S:

"Filmed in 1989 at the San Francisco Opera, Francesca Zambello’s production is straightforward, unlike much of what she directs today. Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti were well into their fifties at the time this was recorded, the camera not always kind, but once they start singing, they become the eternal young lovers. Pavarotti is surprisingly agile, far from the self-parody familiar from more recent video and live performances. Gino Quilico is an exceptional Marcello, Ghiaurov sounds his age, with Stephen Dickson holding his own in this exalted company. Sandra Pacetti starts out as perhaps the most vulgar of Musettas, but is affecting in her last-act appearance. The camera close-ups as she talks to Marcello tend toward the melodramatic, as in the theater we are usually focused on Mimi...Tiziano Severini is efficient, sometimes faster, sometimes slower than is usual in this score, with the orchestra perhaps too much in the background."
- Joel Kasow, FANFARE
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Works on This Recording

1. La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini
Performer:  Luciano Pavarotti (Tenor), Gino Quillico (Baritone), Mirella Freni (Soprano),
Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass)
Conductor:  Tiziano Severini
Orchestra/Ensemble:  San Francisco Opera Orchestra,  San Francisco Opera Chorus
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1896; Italy 

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