A couple of years ago I raved about the Virginia Opera's production of
Tosca:

  http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0110&L=classical&P=R9378&I=3

Last night the same group put on La Boheme, again at George Mason
University in Fairfax, VA.  Tenor Jonathan Boyd as Rodolfo and Karen
Driscoll as Mimi were both excellent.  Grant Youngblood as Marcello and
N'Kenge Simpson-Hoffman as Musetta were exceptional.

I've listened to Boheme on disc maybe 75 times, but this was the first
time I had seen it live.  Even a production by a less than world-class
outfit like the Virginia Opera -- not meaning anything negative here;
just a statement of fact, I believe -- is so much better than repeated
listening and study of the libretto.  When Mimi and Rodolfo first meet,
the garrett is nearly pitch black.  Then, as they gradually draw to one
another -- to some of the most glorious music ever composed, IMO -- the
room lit up with moonlight.  Really effective!  It was at the end of Act
I that the only compromise took place, that I can tell.  As Mimi and
Rodolfo conclude their aria, they cut those excruciatingly high and
exposed notes short, allowing the orchestra to finish the phrase.  Both
Callas/DiStefano and Hendricks/Carerras string them out (with even Callas
a bit wobbly, IIRC).

Thanks to last night, Act III makes a lot more sense to me.  You have
to admire Puccini here.  In what must be the late 19th-century equivalent
of split screen, Marcello and Musetta break up while Rodolfo and Mimi
get together, all in separate, simultaneous dialogues with music that
makes sense for both.

Mimi's last scene must be brutal.  There she is, lying on her deathbed
(forget about the fact that someone dying of consumption can fill an
opera house with song!).  She has to sing softly yet clearly, but she
is semi-prone so can't get that full diaphragm support.

The only problem I had with last night's production was that they took
a 15- or 20-minute intermission between each act.  True, there's a lot
of scenery to move around, but a couple of those acts are short!  So 110
or so minutes of music turned into a three-hour production.  Well, the
singers probably needed to recover too.

Didn't matter.  Puccini's masterpiece was well served last night, and,
thanks to being able to see the nuances, I am now much better able to
appreciate it.  Washington-area listers: Don't bother showing up at
Sunday's repeat performance: Like last night's, it is sold out.  But
check the Virginia Opera out next year when they bring Butterfly to GMU.

Mitch Friedfeld