Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Bravo
Friday night I went to see the Puccini’s classic, La Boheme, one of my great pleasures in life. I’m admittedly obsessed with the tragic story of a tubercular Mimi, who falls in love with a poor poet that later breaks up with her because his poverty, he fears, is precipitating her death. She later returns to him, near death, for her final farewell, before slipping away. Boheme is a great story about youth and how it deals with tragedy.
I’ve seen La Boheme live at least a dozen times in four houses, have 5 different recordings that span the last 40 years of great vocal talent, and probably know almost every note. So when I say the performance I caught on Friday was incredible, it was.
During the first act, the cast portrayed youth with an energy I’d not seen in a while. Capping out the end of the first act are two famous arias during when our two lovers introduce themselves (“What a frozen little hand” and “They call me Mimi”). Our tenor, Roberto Aronica , tore it up soaring into the high notes and filling every corner of the house with sound. And my favorite performing Mimi, Hei-Kyung Hong, was in rare form as she delicately crafted every word of her aria. They then fell in love --and, oh my, did they ever. The end of this act features an off-stage high C –“Lamore!” Rarely does a tenor, after all that singing, hit it. He simply takes it octaves lower to harmonize while the Soprano hits the note (the only time I heard it live was on a Pavoratti DVD). But not last night: He nailed the high C along with Mimi and held the note for so long that the curtain was actually coming down as they were still on the note!
The place went wild. We were all totally energized for the remainder of the performance. Act II opens with the street scene in the Latin Quarter, Paris. The Met shamelessly casts what seemed to be thousands in it. Energized by Act I, as the curtain opened, the audience, upon seeing this spectical, burst into applause (some even were pounding on their seats).
And by the end of the opera, we were all under the Met's spell and a performance, in my opinion, of a lifetime. When the opera ended with Mimi’s tragic death, I could see many teary eyes –including mine – around. And when the curtain finally closed on the tragic scene, not a single person moved: rather, there started a standing ovation. On Broadway, this has become rather commonplace and meaningless, but opera fans know it’s a performer's highest honor, and I’ve not seen too many at the Met. Last night a deserving cast received theirs. I will probably bore my grandchildren with the story of this great performance of one of my favorites.
“Governments come and go, and men die. But the songs of La Boheme live forever.” So writes Thomas Edison.
I’ve seen La Boheme live at least a dozen times in four houses, have 5 different recordings that span the last 40 years of great vocal talent, and probably know almost every note. So when I say the performance I caught on Friday was incredible, it was.
During the first act, the cast portrayed youth with an energy I’d not seen in a while. Capping out the end of the first act are two famous arias during when our two lovers introduce themselves (“What a frozen little hand” and “They call me Mimi”). Our tenor, Roberto Aronica , tore it up soaring into the high notes and filling every corner of the house with sound. And my favorite performing Mimi, Hei-Kyung Hong, was in rare form as she delicately crafted every word of her aria. They then fell in love --and, oh my, did they ever. The end of this act features an off-stage high C –“Lamore!” Rarely does a tenor, after all that singing, hit it. He simply takes it octaves lower to harmonize while the Soprano hits the note (the only time I heard it live was on a Pavoratti DVD). But not last night: He nailed the high C along with Mimi and held the note for so long that the curtain was actually coming down as they were still on the note!
The place went wild. We were all totally energized for the remainder of the performance. Act II opens with the street scene in the Latin Quarter, Paris. The Met shamelessly casts what seemed to be thousands in it. Energized by Act I, as the curtain opened, the audience, upon seeing this spectical, burst into applause (some even were pounding on their seats).
And by the end of the opera, we were all under the Met's spell and a performance, in my opinion, of a lifetime. When the opera ended with Mimi’s tragic death, I could see many teary eyes –including mine – around. And when the curtain finally closed on the tragic scene, not a single person moved: rather, there started a standing ovation. On Broadway, this has become rather commonplace and meaningless, but opera fans know it’s a performer's highest honor, and I’ve not seen too many at the Met. Last night a deserving cast received theirs. I will probably bore my grandchildren with the story of this great performance of one of my favorites.
“Governments come and go, and men die. But the songs of La Boheme live forever.” So writes Thomas Edison.
# posted by otas : 11:02 AM
