Puccini - La Boheme / Pavarotti, Scotto, Niska, Wixell, Plishka, Levine, Metropolitan Opera | 
| Actors: Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarott, Maralin Niska, Ingvar Wixell, James Levine
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $18.60
You Save: $11.38 (38%)
New (17) Used (5) from $18.60
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 5344
Format: Ac-3, Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: Italian (Original Language), German (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Italian (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 123 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 000448409
UPC: 044007340257
EAN: 0044007340257
ASIN: B0007Q6PBK
Theatrical Release Date: 1977
Release Date: October 11, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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| Similar Items:
| • | Puccini - Turandot / Franco Zeffirelli - Marton, Domingo, Mitchell, Plishka, Cuenod - James Levine, MET (1988) | | • | Verdi - Rigoletto / Luciano Pavarotti, Ingvar Wixell, Edita Gruberova, Victoria Vergara, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Riccardo Chailly | | • | Verdi - Aida / Levine, Domingo, Millo, Metropolitan Opera | | • | Puccini - Tosca / Kabaivanska, Domingo, Milnes, Luccardi, Mariotti, Bartoletti | | • | Verdi - La Traviata |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Classic Puccini January 3, 2006
Mike Birman (Brooklyn, New York USA)
109 out of 114 found this review helpful
La Boheme is certainly one of the top three performed Operas worldwide, along with Carmen and Aida. It is not my favorite Puccini Opera; that distinction goes to Manon Lescaut which, as opera critic Irving Kolodin so perfectly phrased it, is "the most of the promise, with the least cost of the fulfillment." I don't begrudge Puccini his popularity: his music is often beautiful, the emotions direct and heartfelt. His librettos seem designed to tug the heartstrings in a plebian grab for popularity, like a television show tested by a focus group. But that's OK. So when I see a production of any of Puccini's most popular operas, I tend to concentrate on sound: the beauty of the instrumental music, the vocal qualities of the singers. I usually ignore the plot. A misguided fear of being manipulated by a master? Probably. I'm weird that way!
So when I say I loved this DVD of La Boheme, that I was engrossed by the drama as well as the music, then it must be something special. The Met usually mounts traditional productions. When they stray from that conservative path, the audience tends to get ornery. This Boheme is a classic production: no "artistic license" shifting the action to the surface of Mars with a cast of farm animals and an orchestra of kazoos! I like a traditional Boheme, the way Puccini envisioned it. The emotions are less over-the-top, the drama more organic. The libretto is direct, even simple. That simplicity is the source of this production's excellence.
Produced live on 15 March 1977 and the inaugural telecast of the PBS "Live at the Met" series, the DVD transfer effectively reduces many of the artifacts inherent to a 30 year old taped program. The image is still a little fuzzier than we're now used to, but not enough to drive you screaming up the wall. The DTS 5.1 sound is clear and full. As for the singing, both Pavarotti as Rodolfo and Renata Scotto as Mimi are at their absolute peak!
This Boheme features a sublimely sung Rodolfo. All of the things Pavarotti was famous for are in evidence here: crystalline tone, perfect diction, fluidity of vocal quality. And this younger, svelter Pavarotti actually acts! I was moved by his performance in a part he obviously identifies with. As for Scotto, a leading soprano at the Met for two decades, her singing is lovely, with a limpid quality that heightens the emotionalism of her superb acting. The excellent cast includes Maralin Niska as Musetta and Ingvar Wixell as Marcello.
James Levine had come into his own as a Conductor around this time. He offers a nearly perfect rendition of this verdant score. The Met Orchestra, obviously on the rise as one of the world's great ensembles, sounds wonderful. Watching them hang on Levine's every gesture, turning on a dime as they negotiate every twist and turn of this score, is one of the pleasures unique to the DVD format. As for the production design by Fabrizio Melano, it is simple and direct. It just looks right!
I don't know if my atitude towards Puccini as a dramatist will ever change. But productions like this one, saved for posterity, are a clue as to why audiences adored Puccini in the first place. Before time and popularity seemed to cheapen the drama until it resembled a High School production of Cats. I love Puccini just like everyone does, of course. It's just that every now and again I need to be reminded why I love him. I strongly recommend this superb DVD. It's the jolt you need to get you in touch with your inner Rodolfo and Mimi.
Mike Birman
Prima Donna of the highest order September 22, 2005
Robert Petersen (Durban, South Africa)
43 out of 43 found this review helpful
The first ever MET telecast, featuring 2 operatic greats at the height of their powers. Pavarotti, slimmer looking (but almost didn't make the high C in his aria), sings his siganture role magically. Scotto, my favourite soprano, portrays Mimi differently to what we are used to seeing and hearing. Watch the bonus interview and you will understand what I mean! 1st class - a Boheme in the old style - highly recommended
Classic performance October 18, 2005
pm444 (Okemos, MI USA)
37 out of 38 found this review helpful
This is a video of the first live Met telecast, recorded in 1977. Therefore, the video image is not up to the standards we're accustomed to seeing today. There are problems with focus and at times the image is downright blurry. This is particularly noticeable in scenes with very little light.
However, it doesn't matter, because Pavarotti and Scotto win you over with their beautiful singing. I expected a youthful Pavarotti to be outstanding, and he is. What I didn't expect was to be so moved by Scotto's performance. I've heard her on many recordings, and admired her singing, but never found her to be particularly engaging. But after watching her in this production, I can see why she is so highly revered by so many fans.
The rest of the cast is what you would expect from a Met performance in the late 70's: highly talented and professional. The orchestra under Levine's leadership is excellent. The stage production is somewhat lackluster compared to the Zefirelli production that came to the Met later, but as with the video's somewhat fuzzy quality, it just does not matter. It's all about the voices and the music, and it doesn't get any better than this.
 soundtrack problems, still plenty of goosebumps July 4, 2007
J. Wayland Eheart (east central Illinois)
30 out of 38 found this review helpful
Bear with me here, I'll get to La Boheme in a minute (and I will also admonish my fellow reviewers).
I've seen a lot of live operas and listened to a lot of opera CDs (and LPs), and one big, difference is that in a live production, it's only the singers' belted-out notes that the audience hears well. The softer notes leading up to and following those notes often are just barely audible above the orchestra. I think it's because one voice, no matter how well-trained, simply isn't as loud as a collection of instruments. And it seems that even the belted-out notes require a little cooperation from the orchestra in backing off a bit. On a CD (or LP for that matter), all sung notes are audible, because the singers have their faces inches from a good quality microphone. Call me corrupted by technology, but I like the CD sound better, except for whatever sound quality is lost in the recording process itself. The balance between the orchestra and the singers is better.
Now, let's understand something about opera DVDs generally. You can't have opera singers holding microphones on camera. So there are two choices in getting the singers' voices recorded, neither of them perfect. One can try to record as they're performing, either live or on a set and in costume, using either a parabolic or shotgun microphone. This gives you perfect lip-sync, but sometimes gives you the out-of-balance sound typical of live performances (but not the clear distortion-free sound of a live performance). I'm not sure why this happens; I think it must be because the microphone operator's aim isn't as good as it should be. The other option is to lip-sync, even if that means with the same person. This yields a more balanced sound, but sometimes the lip-sync-ing is not perfect, and sounds emerge from closed mouths. Personally, I prefer the latter, as I prefer the better sound balance, and can tolerate a little imperfection in the synchronization.
This La Boheme, recording, like all the live @ the Met recordings, uses the parabolic or shotgun microphone technique, with all the shortcomings that that implies. Pavarotti and Scotto are (well, were) among the best in the world, of course, and live up to their reputations--when you can hear them. All the minor-role singers are excellent too. The important duets toward the end of in Act 1 are mostly ok, but much of the singing-over-singing in Act 2 suffers from the poor-aim problem and is disappointing. You turn up the volume and just barely hear the lead-up, then are somewhat satisfied by the punch note, and then the following accompanying chord from the orchestra flattens your lampshades. Act 3 is OK, since there are fewer people singing at one time. Act 4 is pretty much the same for the same reason, with only a few faded sung notes. The last part of Act 4 was not a great turn-on for me, although I have to admit, I have more problems with Puccini on that issue than any singer, conductor, microphone operator, or recording engineer. I guess I just don't think drawn-out death scenes are amenable to great music. I feel the same way about the last parts of Traviata, Norma, and Carmen for that matter. I find them tedious, but that's just me, I guess.
The fidelity of the sound is ok, considering the age of the performance (at least on my equipment, a pretty good Klipsch 2.1 system--better than Bose but not really hi-fi). They must have cut the DVD from a pretty decent master tape. They got a separate grant for "restoration," so maybe that had something to do with it. However, throughout the opera there is some sort of a growl on the soundtrack that sounds a bit like muffled speech, as though there was a little leakage between the main microphone signals and the instructions from the director to the camera or microphone operators.
The performance is really quite good, even if somewhat staid Met standard. I think I like the applause after the arias, duets, and at the ends of acts, although they let it go on a little too long. I have the DG Cosi (lip-synced) and, while it has excellent sound quality, it doesn't have applause, which I must admit, I miss. But I really could have done without Tony Randall's synopses--I just skipped over them (I'd have preferred Walter Matthau, but probably would have skipped over him too). Of course, La Boheme doesn't really lend itself to the lavish staging that is so typical of Met productions, but, the sets are well done, and it's as good a Café Momus as I've seen anywhere. The acting is as good as you'd expect. One minor goof that I was expecting was that Murphy's law would decree that among a bunch of actors complaining about being cold but singing their hearts under hot lights in a warm theatre, someone's bound to start sweating visibly. Indeed, it happens in Act 4 where, in the coat aria, Colline's face has quite a sheen on it.
Well, OK, now to my admonishment. All you reviewers out there, you're not giving me everything I want. TELL ME ABOUT THE SOUND QUALITY! It's really important. When I read reviews, they tell me about everything else, and I'm getting tired of reading every review twice looking for something that isn't there. As far as I'm concerned, sound quality and singing artistry are the two most important features. Even if you do have the latter, you won't enjoy it unless you also have the former. When I pop that DVD in my machine and crank up the volume, I want to hear something close to a live performance in terms of crispness and frequency balance and not a distorted and/or muddy mess, as I have in so many opera DVDs. And I'm counting on you to tell me which I'll get. For example, this Boheme is a little turbid, spotty, but generally not muddy or too distorted. So, to summarize, despite a few shortcomings in the sound, there're still a few goosebumps in this DVD.
Ciao
Wayland
 Great on the ears, less so on the eyes March 22, 2006
Ivy Lin (NY NY)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
This 1977 telecast was the first extant telecast from the Metropolitan Opera. In the 1950's there were some attempts to make telecasts (a Don Carlo, for instance) but these films have never surfaced, and the experiments were not successful. But in 1977, the telecasting of Met performances started in earnest. And it's a good way to start -- one of the most beloved operas, starring two of the Metropolitan's biggest stars, Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti, in trademark roles.
This should be a wonderful experience, but I admit when I saw the telecast I felt a smidge of disappointment. The production is small-scaled and traditional. Unlike the Zefferelli production, the garret really looks like a small, cold, Parisian garret. I like the simplicity of the production, although I think that it's dowdy even for a La Boheme production. Most of the sets are earth-tones -- lots of browns and olives and such. A bit of red would have done a world of good.
Second of all, Pavarotti and Scotto only minimally follow stage directions. Pavarotti at this point is a lot less, uh, large than he would later become. Nevertheless, neither Scotto and Pavarotti seem very mobile. For instance, one of the key moments is Mimi and Rodolfo searching for the key in the dark garret after Mimi's candle has gone out, and Rodolfo has slyly blown his own out. Mimi and Rodolfo search; Rodolfo finds it, and hides it, and continues to 'paw around' until he touches Mimi's hand. Thus, "Che gelida manina" (Your cold little hand), starting probably the most famous 15 minutes of opera. When well done, this scene can be magical: charming, flirtatious, sexy, and romantic. But Pavarotti and Scotto barely bother to search or flirt. It's stand-and-sing. Granted, Pavarotti singing "Che gelida manina" and Scotto singing "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" are glorious. But I wish both singers had followed stage directions with more enthusiasm, so the love scene would have more impact.
Scotto and Pavarotti, as well as the rest of the cast, are generally all in great voice. Pavarotti cracks the high C in "Che gelida manina," which at that point was highly unusual for him. Nevertheless, the glorious tone, the impeccable diction, they are all there. Scotto's voice was still in its prime too. In the late 1970s she would take on heavier roles, and her voice would become harsher and more curdled. But here, she is still luminous. Too bad her incandescent, definitive Butterfly was never filmed.
This would be a great recording of La Boheme. But as a visual document, I find it a shade disappointing. As an aside, the dvd includes interviews that were conducted during intermissions of the telecast. Scotto is interviewed; she has a pretty funny story about a deathbed that had wheels and rolled backwards just as Mimi was "dying." She also says to her kids, "Go to bed." A nice moment.
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