All the operas I'd seen so far were by the same composer, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). His operas are pretty much cornerstones of the repertory. Tosca (premiered 1900) and Madam Butterfly (1904) are still performed in opera houses around the world. He began to make his name with his third opera, Manon Lescaut (1893), but it was his fourth opera, La Boheme, (1896) that really cemented his reputation.(Turandot was his last opera, uncompleted when he died.)
La Boheme (Bohemian life) tells the story of four artist friends living together in a garret in Paris. Based on a novel by Henri Murger, it has itself inspired a musical, Rent, and its combination of tragedy and comedy has ensured that it is one of the most popular operas in the world. Boy meets girl: Rodolfo meets Mimi, and inevitably in opera terms, tenor meets soprano. In his aria of introduction, Che gelida manina (What a cold little hand or known more poetically as Your tiny hand is frozen), Rodolfo introduces himself to Mimi.
And here to sing it are four of our now familiar tenors: Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Giacomo Aragall.
Carreras (Teresa Stratas is Mimi):
Domingo:
Pavarotti (Ileana Cotrubas, one of my favourite singers, is Mimi):
And last, but by no means least, Giacomo Aragall. Aragall was a Spanish tenor who changed his name from Jaume to the more Italian-sounding Giacomo and was often crippled by nerves, insecurity and stage-fright. Pavarotti once said that of the young tenors in the 1960s, Aragall was better than both him and Domingo combined but he never quite managed the career, the fame (nor the recordings) that the others did.Aragall:
The high note, by the way, on the word speranza: hope is the legendary high C.
All these singers have something to offer: none is "the best". Do you have a preference? Rodolfo is a young, jealous, impetuous poet: does one tenor have a more suitable voice for this young man?
In the next posts, we'll look further at La Boheme and meet some new voices.
No comments:
Post a Comment