Axiom has produced its first HDVD: a Giacomo Puccini
La Bohème opera to libretto by
Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica.
This is a motion picture version of the opera directed by Robert Dornhelm. Stars
Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Nicole Cabell, George von Bergen (voice by
Boaz Daniel), Adrian Eröd (voice by Stéphane Degout), and
Vitaly Kovalyou. Bertrand de Billy conducts the Baravian Radio Symphony Orchestra,
the Chorus of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the Children's Chorus of the Staatstheatre
am Gärtnerplatz, Munich. Released in 2009, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound.
This title is available in England, and you can
order it here.
This is the same title, of course, that will be released in the U.S. on December 15 by Kultur. It appears the Axiom
version is region free. We do not know if and when the Axiom version may be available in the U.S or in other countries other than the U.K.
[Now we have the Robert Dornhelm motion picture HDVD of La Bohème,
and we can compare it to the HDVD of the Giancarlo del Monaco staging of the opera at
Theatro Real in Madrid. Earlier I praised del Monaco for "movie-slick" directing with
"fine acting touches." So how does an actual movie stack up with its armada of
technology devoted to photographing persons who are acting to match
pre-recorded music? (That's right, Netrebko (Mimi), Villazón (Rodolfo), Cabell
(Musetta), and Kovalyov (Colline) were not recorded at the photographic sessions.
Von Bergen (Marcello) and Eröd (Schaunard) are not singers, and were selected
for their looks). "Well enough" is the answer. I enjoyed the movie,
and think it belongs on your shelf along with your favourite stage version of La Bohème.
The movie is about 7 minutes shorter than the live opera. Though fast-paced, the movie
in some ways tells the story more clearly than the stage version. For example, in Act 1
the movie uses clever editing to show that Mini has been listening to the antics
of her 4 artistic neighbours and has a passion to meet them. Knowing that one of the
men is alone, Mimi blows out her candle just before she knocks on door of the garret.
On the stage, the speed at which Mimi and Rodolfo fall in love seems like, well,
an opera-story convention. But Dornhelm uses his expanded set and the sexuality
of movie-picture-style close-ups to tell a realistic story of love-starved people
ready for action. And so under Dornhelm, Mimi and Rodolfo make love (brief semi-nude scene)
in Mimi's room while Colline gets his hair cut. All this we can only guess at in the opera
house, but it's licensed, I think, by the libretto. I liked the movie flashback that dramatises
Schaunard's dense story of the English Lord, the maid, and the murder of the parrot.
I also think the Act 2 street scenes and Musetta's grand appearance at Cafe Momus is better
told in the movie than in the stage versions I've seen. So I give the advantage to Dornhelm
over del Monaco in the fist two acts.
In Act 3, the advantage shifts to del Monaco. Both directors are confined by the libretto
to one piece of a street. Dornhelm decided to stick closely to traditional designs,
so he puts Act 3 in the customary snowscape. Del Monaco is more "advanced" in his Act 3.
Even though it's winter, he gives up the snow to make room for his carousing men,
streetwalkers, bag lady, and vomiting drunk. Amazingly, he bathes the entire set
with warm peach-orange-pallet colors---adding irony to his milieu of economic,
psychological, and moral destitution. Thus del Monaco wrings more out of Act 3
than Dornhelm gets with his blizzard.
Finally, I was puzzled by Dornhelm's Act 4 death scene. I'm used to Mimi dying cold
and in the dark (as depicted by del Monaco). But Dornhelm's Act 4 garret looks almost
as bright and cheerful as a TV situation comedy. The windows are open, and it must be
spring (when Mimi and Rodolfo had once agreed to part). Netrebko arrives with bare arms
and low-cut blouse, and Dornhelm muffs it by putting her on a bed with no blanket
for her torso. (I know I should not have used "muff" in the previous sentence.)
At age 38, Netrebko was pleasingly plump (and in fact pregnant). If she's going to die
from the ravages of cold and starvation, they better cover her up and just work
on making her look pale. For me, all the pathos of the death scene gets rinsed out
in the cheerful light. This includes my pet favourite, Colline's overcoat aria.
Dornhelm's Vitaly Kovalyov probably sings Colline's aria better than del Monaco's Filipe Bou.
But Kovalyou looks like a sales executive rather than a destitute philosopher.
Bou, gaunt and spare, scratches out his song and proves with his demeanour
and body language that acting is just as much at home on the stage as before the movie camera.
I rate the casts in these two shows about equal. (I do object to Machado's obesity---if he could
only control what goes into his mouth as well as he controls what comes out of it. Nor would I
recommend that Villazón take off his shirt again for a camera.) So if I could only
have one La Bohème, I would pick the del Monaco version, mostly for his tear-inducing
Act 4. (This opera isn't over until the sick girl dies.)
Looking a bit at the bigger picture, I don't care if the show I have in my home theater starts
on the opera stage or in a Hollywood studio. Nor do I care if the singing is dubbed
or if none of the actors sings a note themselves. I just want my illusion of what Puccini
had in mind. Dornhelm and his backers made this movie hoping to sell tickets to movie houses.
I wish them every success in this. But I do suggest that Axiom made a big mistake
in having subtitles only in English (which are, by the way, good). This HDVD could be popular
all over the world for some time to come. It deserves to have subtitles in 10 languages. Henry McFadyen, Jr.]