Puccini: La Bohème (Royal Opera House 2009) (Blu-ray Review)

If it's Tuesday, this must be Puccini.

Did someone go and create a “La bohème of the Month Club” and not tell me about it? Sometimes it seems like it, what with the glut of Blu-ray versions of Puccini’s venerable ode to art, love and abject poverty which seem to litter my mailbox seemingly every few days. Let’s review, shall we? We’ve had the film version, the English National Opera version (sung in English, in case you were co...

Video

Aside from the lighting issues alluded to above, La Bohème's AVC encoded 1080i image is nicely sharp, with excellent black levels helping to at least partially alleviate the often overwhelming darkness. Aside from Musetta and the restaurant scene, there's not an awful lot of color here to contend with, but what we're offered does display a nice gradation of shades, and detail is good enough that the artists' shabby clothing can be seen in all its raggedness. The snow scene comes off qui...

Audio

Both of the lossless tracks on this Blu-ray are quite good, though occasional balance issues do occur. I opted for the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, which certainly presents a nicely spacious soundfield, within the rather narrow confines of the Royal Opera House. The LPCM 2.0 track, which I spot checked, is really surprisingly narrower, especially when compared to other Opus Arte releases, where the differences between the 5.1 and 2.0, while noticeable, aren't quite this abrupt. The 5.1 mix is...

Supplements

Aside from the cast gallery, the disc includes two HD interviews, one with director Copley (4:09) and the other with conductor Nelsons (3:57), wherein both men talk about their backgrounds with opera in general and La Bohème in particular. The insert booklet has a fascinating essay about the origins of the opera, and Puccini's "contest" with Leoncavallo to see who could set the source material most effectively....

Final Words

If you're an ardent traditionalist, you'll be hard pressed to find much to complain about in this Bohème. If you're a really curmudgeonly, persnickety traditionalist (as am I), you may question the curious lack of overwhelming emotion in this production, as well as some of the tempo markings by conductor Nelsons, but those are ultimately probably pretty minor quibbles. This is a lovely physical production, with strong and lyrical performances by the doomed lovers, and it comes re......

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Puccini: La Bohème (Royal Opera House 2009) (Blu-ray Review)