Mirella Freni

“This outstanding collection demonstrates, as few singers can, the combination of voice and personality needed to take on Puccini's heroines.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 *****

In his note, ‘La bohème: A tale of two Mimìs’, Stephen Jay-Taylor tells the story. ‘This recording, notable for the youthful freshness of its twin protagonists and the airy impulse of its conducting, might well seem to be the happy product of everything proceeding according to plan. In fact, it was the end result of more than three years of deaths, defections and dismissal.’ It began in 1960 with a plan to rerecord Beecham’s classic 1956 account in stereo. But Beecham was dying and Böjrling died, so sessions were scheduled for 1961 with Victoria de los Angeles and Franco Corelli as the principals. However, Corelli proved impossible to pin down. Then, with Gedda brought in as EMI’s all-repertoire house tenor, the apparently barren de los Angeles fell pregnant – only to do so again come the final rescheduling in 1963. This was Freni’s chance: ‘She had already made well-received debuts at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden...and the sessions proceeded without a hitch, in Olof’s exquisitely crafted, beautifully detailed stereo production. The set...met with considerable acclaim, most of it occasioned by Freni’s meltingly lovely, vernal Mimì’.

“There are many lovely things about this set - the radiant Mimi of Mirella Freni, and the ardent Rodolo of Nicolai Gedda. Schipper's conducting is interesting, but the smaller parts are weakly cast.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 ****