Pavarotti! Te Kanawa! THOMAS ALLEN (big Sir Tom fan)!! And a Schaunard that’s easily distinguishable from the Marcello (just listened to a Butterfly where I couldn’t tell Sharpless from Pinkerton, lol). But the sound! Voices are very recessed. In second act they nearly disappear, yet the Quando m’en concertato will nearly take your ears off. You’ll always be fiddling with the volume. Depressing, that you’re this close to an excellent performance and can’t quite hear it. For die-hards.

Fans of Te Kanawa and Pavarotti will definitely get their money's worth here. Both singers are in sterling voice and give memorable performances. Pavarotti sings everything in key so we get two high C's in Act One from him (they are good ones too.) Te Kanawa may not have been as natural a fit in Puccini as she was in Mozart, but she sings with beauty and imagination. Allen is a first-rate Marcello, Pellegrini a sparkling Musetta (she even sings a diminuendo on the high B at the end of her waltz that most sopranos don't bother with.) Van Allen is a vivid Colline, singing his Coat aria with believable sadness. Harling does a great English accent in his opening monologue. Stapleton keeps his forces together in an enjoyable performance. Which would be even more enjoyable if the in-house were better than it is. The voices can be heard clearly most of the time, but whoever taped this was a Fidgeter. There are bumps, thumps, and weird scratchy noises to endure, but in the end the performance comes through.