The Met’s All-Star La Bohème

 

 

La Bohème has racked up more performances at the Met than any other opera. Given nearly every season since 1900, it surpassed the previous champion, Aïda, long ago. Its current production, designed and staged by Franco Zeffirelli in 1981, is closing in on its six hundredth iteration. Zeffirelli’s aerial garret, two-level Parisian street scene, and snowy Act III win more applause than casts often headed by second tier singers. This post features highlights from the opera performed by Met stars of the past.

Claudia Muzio sang Mimì infrequently, and only at the beginning of her Met career. This recording of “Mi chiamano Mimì” was made in 1935, shortly before her premature death. Her attention to detail conjures up the presence of the man to whom she is describing herself. Like Bergonzi, she never exceeds the expressive dimensions set by Puccini.

The love duet that closes Act I, “O soave fanciulla,” catches Renata Tebaldi and Jussi Björling in peak form. The clip is from a 1956 telecast. Although Tebaldi and Björling co-starred at the Met but once (Tosca), they performed together live in concert and on several recordings. Rodolfo was the role of Björling’s Met debut in 1938; the second performance of Tebaldi’s first Met season (1954-1955) was as Mimì. Constrained by the TV camera, they win no acting awards, but, singing live, their gorgeous voices brilliantly portray the young lovers.

 

Rudolf Bing cast Ljuba Welitsch, his Salome and Aïda, in the secondary role of Musetta in order to discourage Patrice Munsel, his reigning soubrette, from taking on Mimì. He succeeded. Munsel wisely begged off, fearing the competition of the flamboyant Welitsch, although seven years later she ventured Mimì on the Met stage. Welitsch’s single Met Musetta (January 30, 1952) is remembered for her farcical overplaying—she rode Marcello piggy-back--and the beauty of her singing. Her 1949 recording of the famous waltz, conducted by none other than Josef Krips, is a lesson in how the aria should be delivered.

 Mimì was one of the roles Victoria de los Angeles sang most often at the Met. Her ineffably sweet timbre conveys, with utter simplicity, the sadness of Mimì’s Act III “addio” (a farewell albeit deferred) to Rodolfo. The clip is from the marvelous complete recording conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.

 Rodolfo and Marcello lament their lost sweethearts at the start of Act IV. The duet of Beniamino Gigli and Giuseppe De Luca was a highlight of Bohème performances in the 1920s and 1930s. De Luca’s credentials include the creation of two Puccini roles, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at La Scala in 1904 and the title role in Gianni Schicchi at the Met in 1918. Gigli sang Rodolfo often at the Met; his late-1930s complete recording of La Bohème was a best-seller.

P.S. Enrico Caruso and Nellie Melba were early exponents of La Bohème. In a tour performance in Los Angeles, Melba was the company’s first Mimì. Mary Garden commented that Melba’s high C at the end of the first act love duet was one of the most beautiful notes she had ever heard. Caruso still leads the list of Met tenors who have sung Rodolfo. This clip is from a recording made in 1907, less than a decade after the opera premiered in Turin.

 

 

Recovering the Forgotten Singer, 8: Lois Marshall

The international career of Toronto-born Lois Marshall (1924-1997) began in the early 1950s, subsequent to frequent radio and television appearances in Canada. Viewers of the CBC saw Marshall in the demanding roles of Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Leonora (Fideliio). Winner of the prestigious Naumberg Award, she was soon contracted as leading soprano by Arturo Toscanini for a radio concert of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and by Sir Thomas Beecham for recordings of Mozart’s Die Entführing aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) and Handel’s Solomon. The beauty of her timbre, her excellent musicianship, and remarkable technique won her these difficult assignments.

Marshall’s concert career, encompassing a wide-ranging repertoire, lasted for more than three decades. Her stage performances of opera were regrettably few since her mobility was limited by the polio she had contracted as a child. On disc and in recital she programmed arias from the Baroque period to the 20^th century.

Here is a clip from Beecham’s 1957 recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Konstanze, a Spanish noblewoman is captive in a Turkish harem. She answers Pasha Selim’s entreaties for her love with the aria “Ach, ich liebte, war so glücklich (Alas, I loved, I was so happy),” bemoaning the separation from her true love, Belmonte. The seamless legato of the opening adagio section is followed by the challenging embellishments, at the top of the singer’s range, of the vehement allegro passages. As she spins out the opening phrases, and attacks the runs and trills with utter confidence, Marshall rises to Mozart’s disparate demands.

“When I am Laid in Earth” is Dido’s lament in Act III of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Abandoned by Trojan prince Aeneas, the Queen of Carthage announces her suicide to her devoted retinue and asks only to be remembered. Expressing Dido’s deep sadness, Marshall deploys her rich middle register with utter evenness. In this 1963 clip she is accompanied by a Dutch chamber ensemble.

Although she recorded Italian arias by Bellini, Verdi, and Puccini, and often sang them in concert, Marshall’s voice was perhaps most suited to the repertoire of the Jugendlich dramatischer Sopran, the dramatic lirico spinto. Her rendition of “Leise, leise, fromme Weise! (Softly, softly, My pure song!)” from Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz glows with the warmth of her sound, the long-breathed sureness of her phrasing, and the ease of her agility. First, Agathe tenderly evokes the sweetness of the night and her love for Max, then betrays her excitement when she senses his approach. The clip is from a commercial recording issued in 1958.

 

 

Marshall’s versatility is captured by her many YouTube selections.