Here we have two grand, grand romantic operas. One (William Vincent Wallace) you will probably not get a chance to see but occasionally read about in textbooks. The other (Giacomo Puccini) is an ever popular classic in the international operatic repertory.
Wallace’s Lurline, first performed, to great acclaim at Covent Garden in 1860, gets an outstanding and committed performance, beautifully recorded.
La Boheme, which premiered at Turin in 1896 under Arturo Toscanini, is here well filmed and recorded in surround sound in the highly authentic John Copley Royal Opera, Covent Garden production. However, the performance never actually takes off.
Lurline is an impressive curiosity. The libretto, by reliable hack and poetaster Edward Fitzball, is based on the fashionably popular Lorelei myth of the singing siren Rhine maidens, who sit on the rocks, combing their luxurious golden hair and seducing mariners to their destruction.
Someone who studied German O-Level years ago might remember learning the folk song, portraying the sailor as he sinks in slumber to his ruin Here we have a three-act melodrama, stuffed with all the required ingredients, concerning the love triangle of Lorelei Lurline, Count Rupert and his beloved, Ghiva, which gives us the operatic full works: river gods, castles, caverns, mountain rocks, fairytale palaces, hunting scenes, floods, thunderstorms and suicide. The performance is of a very high quality, which you’d expect given conductor Richard Bonynge’s authority in 19th century theatre music. It’s good to have the chance to hear this undoubtedly spectacular vanished period piece. The music is charming, a wonderful emulsion of Weber, Mendelssohn and Sullivan, with melodies that are almost – but not quite – memorable.
Andris Nelsons conducts a low voltage performance of La Boheme in a very handsome “traditional” production nigh on 40 years old.
I like traditional productions, but passion is the very essence of La Boheme. Although all the notes are unquestionably here, this is rather anaemic experience.
The no-going-back falling-in-love moment at the end of Act One goes almost for nothing and the tragedy at the finale lacks terror.
But it’s splendid to look at and listen to. Those with a good big television screen and quality surround sound can bask in it all. The attic looks like an attic and you can almost smell the food and drink in the restaurant. You may shiver in the snow, but your hair won’t stand on end and you’ll not shed a tear. This is veal, but it should be full-blooded steak.
