Puccini: La Boheme (complete opera recorded in 2012) BLU-RAY

Set in the artistic but impoverished milieu of early 19th-century Paris, the tragic love of the poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì is one of the most affecting in all opera. La Bohème's arias are also some of the most intensely passionate Puccini ever wrote, making it is one of the best-loved of all his works. In what Opera News called a 'thorough rethinking and brilliant re-creation' this exceptional Oslo production, strongly cast and conducted, and staged by internationally acclaimed director Stefan Herheim, explores the work as never before to create what The New York Times called an 'ultimately haunting' experience.

This 2012 Oslo Opera House production was described as a 'surreal, moving experience' by The New York Times. The Opera Quarterly added that director Stefan Herheim 'has reminded us what the plot of La Bohème is really about and forced us to reflect both upon the opera's ugly realities and upon our own blindness to it.'

Gramophone also praised the cast: 'The cast's singing is clearly invigorated by these fresh staging ideas… Tenor Diego Torre has a wonderfully robust high C; soprano Marita Sølberg is a stylistically Italianate as any Mimì I've ever heard. Don't schedule any social engagements after watching this. You might not be in any shape to keep them.'