La Boheme DVD

NOTE: This title is a DVD Video

DVD has no regional coding - playable in all regions
\r\n Filmed in High Definition
\r\n NTSC Colour
\r\n Picture format 16:9
\r\n Running time 118 minutes
\r\n Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish

Giacomo Puccini

La Boheme

Opera in Four Acts

Orchestra and Chorus of the Puccini Festival
\r\n Childrens Choir of the Puccini Festival
\r\n Stewart Robertson, conductor

Director: Maurizio Scaparro
\r\n Scenes and costumes: Jean-Michel Folon

Recorded at Puccini Festival, Torre del Lago, July 2007 \r\n

Mimi - Norma Fantini
\r\n Musetta - Donata D Annunzio Lombardi
\r\n Rodolfo - Massimiliano Pisapia
\r\n Marcello - Gabriele Viviani
\r\n Schaunard - Massimiliano Valleggi
\r\n Colline - Andrea Patucelli
\r\n Benoit, Alcindoro - Franco Boscolo
\r\n Parpignol - Riccardo Del Picchia
\r\n Custom House Sergeant - Giuseppe Pinochi
\r\n Custom House Clerk - Valter Battaglini

- First represented in 1896 under the conduction of a 29 year \r\n old Toscanini, La Bohème is ever since Puccini’s most beloved masterpiece.
\r\n - As Mosco Carner has written, Puccini’s La Bohème is the first \r\n ever opera to attain an almost perfect fusion of romantic and realistic elements \r\n with impressionist touches. With its four concise and strongly characterised \r\n acts, the opera presents a theatrical structure of surprising modernity, which \r\n Puccini enlivens with musical invention that despite being carefully studied \r\n and worked on gives the listener the impression of absolute spontaneity.
\r\n - The burning lyricism of the love duet in the first act and of Mimi’s \r\n death scene, the accurate painting of details, the fresh liveliness of the conversation \r\n scenes, the sophistication of orchestration, often almost of chamber-music taste, \r\n all contribute to making La Boheme one of the most original creations in the \r\n history of opera.
\r\n - The stage set and the costumes have been created by the famous Belgian artist \r\n Jean-Michel Folon, who was awarded with the Abbiati Prize. This was the last \r\n contribution that Folon was able to give to the theatre before his death.
\r\n - Folon’s Paris is naif, colorful, young and moving. The touch of director \r\n Scaparro underlines the careless and joyful athmosphere of this story of love \r\n and death which are, in Scaparro’s words ”two words separated by \r\n a hyphen called ”life”.
\r\n - Perhaps the finest compliment ever made to Puccini came from Claude Debussy, \r\n who, when chatting with Manuel De Falla, declared that he knew no one who had \r\n better described the Paris of the time than Puccini in La Boheme.
\r\n - This DVD has been recorded at the prestigious Puccini Festival of Torre Del \r\n Lago. The Festival is carrying on a very interesting project called ”Scolpire \r\n l’Opera” ("Sculpting the Opera") which aims at linking \r\n painting and sculpting by great contemporary artists to the immortal music of \r\n the most beloved composer in the world.