From the San Francisco Opera 1988: Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni’s incomparable partnership as Rodolfo and Mimi, the tragic lovers in Puccini’s much-loved bittersweet opera, is captured for posterity in this live recording from the San Francisco opera. Francesca Zambello’s production boasts a superlative cast with Gino Quilico as Marcello, Nicolai Ghiaurov as Colline, Stephen Dickson as Schaunard and Sandra Pacetti as Musetta. The Italian conductor Tiziano Severini drew critical acclaim for his passionate and spontaneous reading of the score.
La Bohème
This production of ‘La Bohème’ scored a trio of ‘firsts’: it was the first opera film to be produced by Unitel, the first music film conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and the first major film production by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth). Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli’s acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi as the starcrossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and orchestra of Milan’s La Scala. The production is still considered today one of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera performance in the 20th century..
Madama Butterfly
Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988) has been called “a weaver of magic, a curator of the sublime, a master choreographer, a footlose farceur” (The Wall Street Journal). One of the most imaginative director- designers of our times, Ponnelle was also the first significant opera director to have a large portion of his work preserved on film. In his chilling and poignant account of “Madama Butterfly”, he tried to use all the typical resources of film such as flashbacks, slow motion and “inner monologues”, where the singers do not move their lips to sing. Under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, the stellar cast includes Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo and Christa Ludwig.
Carmen
If Herbert von Karajan continues to be a looming presence in today’s classical music world, then it is not only because of his more than 800 records and CDs, but also because of the many hours of video recordings which he produced over the course of many years. He began preserving his performances on film back in 1965 with ‘La Bohème’. His ‘Carmen’ is based on his 1966 production for the Salzburg Festival with Grace Bumbry – one of the greatest interpreters of the title role in our time –, Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni and Justino Diaz in the lead roles.
Otello
Herbert von Karajan, a master painter of aural and visual panoramas, has created a medley of Mediterranean moods, extending from the violent storm of the Overture to the golden hues of the palace scenes. Jon Vickers, in one of his greatest roles as the brooding Moor Othello, displays the full brilliancy of his legendary voice; Mirella Freni, as Othello’s tormented wife Desdemona, secures our compassion with singing of serene vocal beauty; Peter Glossop is as evil an Iago as one can imagine. Three definitive portrayals of some of Verdi’s most powerful characters. With the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Herbert von Karajan’s Salzburg Festival production is assured of an electrifying impact.
Ernani
Ernani, Verdi’s fifth opera (1844) is melodic from beginning to end. Based on Victor Hugo’s play, whose tumultuous reception in 1830 marked a decisive turning point in the development of romantic drama, this violent and sombre story of frustrated passion, honour fatally impugned, and ambition thwarted and rewarded, is set by the young composer to a succession of irresistible tunes, unsurpassed even in his mature works. The opera’s dramatic impetus is unstoppable. For Luca Ronconi’s production, four of the world’s leading Verdi singers were engaged: Placido Domingo as the bandit, Ernani; Renato Bruson as the scheming, dangerously suave King Charles of Spain; Nicolai Ghiaurov as the proud Spanish Grandee whose implacable sense of honour propels the action to ist tragic conclusion; and Mirella Freni as the gentle heroine desired by these three rivals.
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
Few conductors have mastered the fluidity of melodic control, the rhythmic drive and the dramatic characterization of Mozart’s operas to the extent of Karl Böhm. This production, filmed in London in 1976, abounds in splendid singers, all of whom give performances of the highest vocal and dramatic distinction: Hermann Prey is the definitive Figaro, charming in his vigorous self-confidence; Mirella Freni’s Susanna is a personification of innocence and beauty; Kiri Te Kanawa’s Countess is a touching portrait of wronged womanhood; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Count is a deceitfully flirtatious despot; and Maria Ewing’s Cherubino is a passionate study of adolescent naivety. Böhm’s wonderfully supple conducting reflects his lifelong devotion to Mozart. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s direction perfectly translates the polished stylishness and the beauty and warmth of Böhm’s musical direction into scenes and character portrayals of luminous naturalness. “And what a gloriously photogenic and euphonious cast led by the uniquely differentiated quartet of Fischer-Dieskau’s subtle Count Almaviva versus Hermann Prey’s defiant Figaro, and Kiri Te Kanawa’s honeyed Countess versus Mirella Freni’s not at all playful Susanna. Great singers all, they were guided by Ponnelle in a production without a moment of cliché¿ The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic under Böhm couldn’t have been more Mozartian.” (The Daily Telegraph, 9.3.77) “A million-dollar TV Figaro that improves on the original… Productions of this caliber have been televised from stages before, but never has the dramatic and visual potential of opera freed from such constraints been so ambitiously addressed. The result is eye-opening, and despite an occasional overuse of the new tools, the production establishes beyond doubt that the TV screen can add an important new dimension to the operatic experience.” (The Washington Post, 5.10.77)
Fedora
Adriana Lecouvreur
Cilea’s four-act opera of jealousy and tangled love, first performed in Milan in 1902, is based on the true-life story of Adriana Lecouvreur, an 18th-Century actress at the Comédie Française, whose rival for the love of Maurizio, Count of Saxony, is the married Principessa di Bouillon. Mirella Freni sings the title part in this production, Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducts the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala.
Vocal Perfection – The Tenor Nicolai Gedda
The Swedish-born lyrical tenor Nicolai Gedda is considered one of the greatest tenors of the 20th Century. From the time of his debut in 1952 right through his unprecedented career for half a century, he took the world’s stages by storm and recorded more than 200 albums which made him the most recorded tenor in history.