Still the best
Betty Jack | Goleta, CA USA | 04/08/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Toscanini's been gone for decades now, but this recording of La Bohème is still the best ever. Why? Simple. He conducted the premier performance of the opera and had the advantage of being able to consult with Puccini himself as to how he wanted his opera to sound. Yes, this recording was made back in 1946. Yes, the sound quality would have been better with modern equipment. But modern sound equipment can't make a performance better by itself. Far too many modern "super-star" conductors like to tinker with the pacing and so on to make a performance sound the way they think the composer would have written it if he had been as much of a genius as the conductor considers himself to be. In this recording Toscanini immersed himself in the actual score so much that he can sometimes be heard humming along with a singer. This is not bad and you have to listen hard to hear it, and you'll hum along too. As for the singers, all of them clearly were deeply caught up in their roles. Licia Albanese is absolutely perfect as the delicate, doomed Mimì, Jan Peerce gives what I think is the performance of a lifetime as Rodolfo, and the rest of the cast are equally in top form. I first heard this recording on vinyl half a century ago; I came home from school in the middle of the last act. I had never heard an opera before,I had no idea of what the plot was, I didn't understand a word of Italian, and I cried when Mimì died. I generally don't cry with other performances, but I still cry with this one. You will, too."
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1