Leoncavallo: La Bohème

Day 231

Leoncavallo La Bohème

Soloists

Chorus and Orchestra of la Fenice Venice

Jan Latham Koenig

This is one of the most well know examples of operas by the 'wrong' composer. Unlike some of the other examples the 'right' and 'wrong' composers were working on their operas at more or less the same time - indeed there was some dispute between them as to who had the rights to the story. 

I saw a performance of Cav and Pag at the ENO (Sadlers Wells Opera as it was then) on a school trip - I can't say I remember much about it and I don't think that I have listened to I Paglicci or anything else by Leoncavallo since then. So I approached this with a very open mind.

My initial reactions were very positive, I thought that the first act was splendid. It had an energy and a lightness of touch which really suited the happy goings on of the young friends eating and drinking at the café momus knowing that they had nothing to pay the bill with.  Indeed I think Leoncavallo matched, perhaps even surpassed, Puccini in his characterisation of the friends. There was a distinct French tinge to some of the music here and I wouldn't have surprised me if I had been told that it was by Massenet.

In Puccini's La Boheme that opening scene can seem a bit of a drag (even though it is quite short) because you know you are waiting for the moment that Rudolfo and Mimi meet and sing their love duet. Nothing else really matters. The problem with Leoncavallo's work is that there is no equivalent emotional moment. In his opera it is Marcello who is the tenor and he is love with Musetta who is a mezzo. That doesn't really work for me and in any case there is nothing remotely like the love duet for them to sing. Rudolfo here is a baritone and doesn't really seem a well rounded character. Mimi is a soprano and has some affecting music  but she is not a dominant character and only really emerges towards the end of the opera. Her death scene - one of the great moment in the Puccini - is actually rather perfunctory and the opera ends rather ineffectively.

So a real curiosity. There are lots of references to other operas in the score - les Huguenots and Tristan among them - and some very attractive music in places. But after that tremendous first act is was a bit of a disappointment: posterity made the right call!