Leoncavallo and Puccini were at work on their respective Bohèmes at approximately the same time, and the sense of competition that developed between them ultimately ended their friendship. Puccini had the advantage of a far superior libretto, Giacosa's and Illica's very free adaptation of Murger's Scènes de la vie de bohème, in which they wisely focused in on the love between Rodolfo and Mimì. The libretto that Leoncavallo wrote stayed closer to the episodic spirit of the source and the result was a work that was dramatically more diffuse, with less clearly defined characterizations. Puccini's version was premiered in 1896 in Turin, and Leoncavallo's in 1897 in Venice. Both works held the stage for a while, but Puccini's superseded Leoncavallo's in the first decade of the twentieth century. One of the unanswerable "what ifs" of operatic history is whether Leoncavallo's version might have made him more than a one-hit wonder had Puccini not written his Bohème. While his version falls far short of the musical and dramatic distinction of Puccini's (with a particularly weak ending), Leoncavallo's opera has enough attractive music that audiences may have overlooked its dramatic shortcomings if they didn't have Puccini's masterpiece as a point of comparison.
Nuova Era's live recording of a 1990 performance at Teatro la Fenice (the site of the opera's premiere) offers a credible presentation of the work. Jan Latham-Koenig leads the orchestra and chorus in a lively and engaging performance that highlights the inventiveness of the score and the composer's gift for melody that is equal at least to that of I Pagliacci. The score is richly Romantic with a harmonic language that more than occasionally nods to Tristan and a lyricism that is sometimes, almost, but not quite Puccinian. The leads are all persuasive, but tenor Mario Malagnini as Marcello, baritone Bruno Praticò as Schaunard, mezzo Martha Senn as Musetta, and soprano Lucia Mazzaria as Mimì stand out. The sound is more than adequate, with good presence and balance, but there is a lot of stage noise involving the jiggling of cutlery and what sounds like furniture falling over. The opera should be of interest to fans of verismo and anyone interested in a respectable alternative version to one of the pillars of the repertoire.
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