Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Puccini: La Boheme

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Puccini's La Bohème (1896) is the obvious choice for programming at this time of year, since the action of the opera opens on Christmas Eve and continues through Christmas Day in the first two acts.

There's a historic recording of La Bohème that I have broadcast once before long ago on Christmas Eve, 1989. It was recorded live in radio broadcast over the NBC network from New York City on February 3/10, 1946, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The recording's historic importance is enhanced by the fact that it was broadcast in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the staged premiere of the opera in Turin. Toscanini knew Puccini personally and made the performance of Puccini's operas a personal cause. It was Toscanini who conducted the world premiere of Turandot after the composer's death. In 1968 RCA Victor Red seal issued the 1946 Toscanini Bohème on LP's in monaural sound. The Metropolitan Opera's resident tenor of the period, Jan Peerce, is heard as the poet Rodolfo, with soprano Licia Albanese as Mimi. The greatest Italian basso buffo of all time, Salvatore Baccaloni, was cast in the role of the landlord Benoit.