La Boheme : Antonicelli / MET Opera, Bidu Sayao, Tucker, Moscona, Oliviero, etc (1947 Monaural)(2CD)

Sony Classical announces a further batch of complete recordings from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor catalogues. The newest installment of this popular series features some unusual repertoire as well as documents of the New York Metropolitan Opera in its postwar heyday. Puccinis La Bohme from 1947 is a classic Old Met company performance, starring the leading American tenor of the day, Richard Tucker, as Rodolfo and the delightful Brazilian soprano Bid Sayo as Mim. Tucker had sung his first Rodolfo only a month before, but, as Gramophone observed, he sounds like part of a team, each member of which knows this opera and this production of it inside out. He is in fine, youthful, effortlessly produced voice and his line is immaculately sustained, never broken by histrionics. All the others are first-class ensemble singers but the star, undoubtedly, is Bid Sayo. Her voice has great charm and touching purity, she sings expressively but never overdoes her acting, and the intimacy of her portrayal, which makes the last act so moving, is perhaps surprising from a soprano who had sung this role so often in such a huge auditorium. [Conductor Giuseppe] Antonicellis control of rubato is admirable, the fruit no doubt of having worked with these singers in these roles so often.