Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme – Antonio Pappano

   in Opera Now (Dec, 2018)
Two operas on film for stocking fillers, perhaps – both filmed at the Royal Opera in 2017. The perennial La bohème in Richard Jones’s production, which is perhaps your best chance of seeing the whole thing – the sets-within- a-set apparently cut offviews from parts of the theatre. It’s fine-looking and traditional, and the performances are generous in a large-scale manner. Nicole Car is a tender Mimì, Michael Fabiano a rich-voiced Rodolfo. Mariusz Kwiecien? and Simona Mihai add sexiness as Marcello and Musetta. Antonio Pappano leads an exuberant performance from the pit, all the more to relish the pathos when it comes.

Likewise with Pappano’s conducting of Madama …