Friday's French music break - Angela Gheorghiu and Piotr Beczała, "La bohéme"

True to form this week's Friday's French music break isn't exactly...er...French.

Still, the setting of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's 1896 (yep, bang up to date) opera "La bohème" is Paris (the Latin quarter to be exact) and what is probably one of his best-known and popular works has just finished the first of two runs at l'Opéra Bastille.

Setting the opera in the 1930s as the (now 20-year-old) Jonathan Miller production does, might have upset some aficionados down the years, but quite frankly with Romanian soprano (and ace diva) Angela Gheorghui up there on stage as Mimi, supported by Polish tenor Piotr Beczała as Rudolfo, who gives a damn?

The pair reprise the roles they performed together in San Francisco five years ago.

Angela Gheorghiu and Piotr Beczała (screenshot from San Francisco Opera preview, 2008)

Gheorghui, suitably capricious and coquettish (both vocally and in terms of behavious with nobody quite knowing how she would perform on the night) in a role that has become one of her "fetishes" or signature pieces.

Beczała with a fine voice, but perhaps lacking the resonance of others who've sung the role and finding himself almost competing at times with the orchestra under Israeli conductor  Daniel Oren the

Ah "La bohème"!

Yes the libretto is far from being mindblowing. It's all about romance; "a love affair between a poor poet ( Rudolfo) and an equally hard-up seamstress" (Mimi) - doomed because, although they're made for each other, he's jealous of her flirtatiousness and she has consumption, to which she succumbs in the final act.

That's the not-quite "Brodie's Notes"-like plot version. Full of melodrama and lacking the great themes of some of Puccini's other works perhaps.

But - and it's a big but - "La bohème" is stuffed to bursting point with heart-rending arias and the most exquisite arrangements.

Puccini could pen a tune or two!

Anyway, Gheorghui and Beczała's  run came to an end on April 11.

Bravos all round as each member of the cast took their individual bows at regular intervals after the final performance with Gheorghui pausing just long enough to let everyone who was really the star, before making her way on to the stage.

But you can still catch ""La bohéme" at La Bastille in July with another Romanian soprano, Anita Hartig (who made her New York Metropolitan Opera debut debut in the role at the beginning of April) , and Italian tenor, Massimo Giordano, taking over the main roles.

Well worth seeing.

For the moment though, here's a "preview" video clip of excerpts of Gheorghui and Beczała performing in "La Bohème" in San Francisco in 2008.

La bohème "starring" Natalie Dessay

Actually that's not quite right as the current run of Giacomo Puccini's four-act work at the Opéra Bastille in Paris came to an end on Sunday.

But for many in the audience, Natalie Dessay's presence was probably the reason for theirs, regardless of the fact that she wasn't singing the main role, and it was something of a case of "move over Mimi, Musetta's here."

There's no doubt that without really trying Dessay somewhat stole the show but at the same time without upstaging the other singers.

Quite an achievement really.



That's not to say that the main protagonists in this production weren't good: in fact they were very good.

Massimo Giardino as Rodolfo and Inva Mula as Mimi in the final performance of the run (roles they shared with Stefano Secco and Tamar Iveri) more than held their own during the first act) with moving interpretations of the star struck lovers in those arias probably everyone knows "Che gelida manina" and "Sì, mi chiamano Mimì".

And the duet "O soave fanciulla" more than lived up to expectations.

But midway through the second act the audience seemed to lean forward collectively to watch and listen more attentively as the coquettish Musetta made her entrance and Dessay charmed everyone with "Quando me n’vò".

All right so perhaps it wasn't hard work for the 44-year-old French coloratura soprano to win over an already converted public.

Quite simply put she's a star here in France. Take two. She's an international star and her success has been built not only on the quality of her voice but also her ability to act.

In that sense Musetta, although a secondary role, is exactly suited to Dessay's knack of adding the lightest of comic touches where it's needed without falling into the trap of appearing ridiculous.

Add to that the fact that in interviews Dessay always comes across as completely grounded and totally "un-diva-ish" and it's not hard to understand her popularity.

For those who might have missed her this time around in "La bohème" there'll soon be another chance to see her.

Dessay will be back at Opéra Bastille in Paris from January 25, 2010 when she'll be reprising her role of Amina in Vincenzo Bellini's "La sonnambula" - a part she sang to great critical acclaim at New York's Metropolitan Opera earlier this year.