angelofvic This is definitely not a production for traditionalists.Rodolfo and Mimi have sex after finding her key, before joining the others at the Café Momus.From the beginning, Mimi is dressed like a harlot -- in red, with plunging décolleté, large exposed breasts, and bright red lipstick.The set colors in general are loud and bright, sets are incongruous, and the cinematography is grossly oversaturated in an almost cartoonish fashion.It might fly with the iPhone generation and the sex-obsessed, but I'd bet Puccini is turning over in his grave.

Gyran I expected to hate this because I can't stand dubbed opera but, to my surprise, I found that I loved it. Considerable trouble seems to have been taken with the lip synching and Rolando Villazón in particular really looks as though he is singing rather than just opening and closing his mouth in time to the music. So what this film lacks in operatic authenticity it makes up for in dramatic impact. Villazón has an impressive dramatic range with a very mobile face, OK so sometimes he looks like Mr Bean. Anna Netrebko does not have to do much more than look lovely and sing divinely, two things that she does supremely well. Nicole Cabell is a scream as Musetta and almost outglams La Netrebko. I was going to say that Schaunard, Marcello and Colline are well sung and well acted but, checking the credits, I see that they are performed by three on-screen actors miming to the singers' voices. That probably explains why I thought that the lip-synching was not so good in those roles.There is just enough opening up of the action. We see Mimi right at the beginning in her room listening with interest to the antics of the four artists. We also see her cross the landing and deliberately blow out her candle before knocking on Rodofo's door. Most surprisingly, we see Mimi and Rodolfo pause on the way to the Café Momus to go to her room and consummate their relationship.Such a splendid production makes you wonder why they did not do it this way and also record the sound live. The technology is available these days. I suppose it was a question of priorities with the first priority being to make a perfect CD with the film being a subsidiary aim.

swamiharinanda Some things were really excellent about this movie. The production and mimicry of Paris was superb. All scenes in the movie beautifully constructed, giving a correct pacing for the actors to have enough space to create their roles.The colour superb.Netrebko as always fine, but lacking in the bloom of her voice. I have heard her many times before on DVD, and it seems to me the sound engineer put a hard edge on her voice. Her acting is superb and it was finally nice to see the role interpreted as though Mimi was a mature woman and not some girlish female fingering her clothing is some coy way as Georghiu does in the met DVD production. Both woman I mention in this paragraph are stunning. Netrebko comes off tops because of her portrayal.Villazon's voice , and he is not to blame loses its line because of a faulty sound engineers inability to keep the voice in focus and at the right forte, as in the example of his top C in Che Gelida Manina, where it seems to drop off in volume and tone. He also does not sing his mezza voce where it is called for in the score. As usual his acting is contrived and over the top, with flailing arms and hands touching his face and head in place of honest acting. He is not a very pleasant looking singer to watch in the way he has been trained to use his mouth.The other men are fine actors and the behind the scene voices were admirable.Musetta was fabulous and a real scene stealer in the café scene. She looked good. Her acting was great, and her voice was very fine for the role. I really liked her.On the whole I will not watch this production again, as for me, in opera it is the voice which is the most important. Here I blame the sound engineer.When I listen to La Boheme again, it will be the Met production with Vargas and Ghiorghiu - or the earlier recording of Teresa Stratas and Jose Carreras. Now this is a Mimi and Rudolpho, and although an older recording, you see and hear two artists in their prime.

Spondonman It is what it is: a film version of an opera - they can never be anything else after all. This must be seen as a film of people miming to music with cinematography augmented by digital cartoonery supplanting stage drama, and judged on those merits. As a film it's pretty - pretty enjoyable and pretty well worth watching … and of course Anna Netrebko as Mimi is fairly pretty too!Young penniless couple meet, fall instantly head over heels in love for no reason at all but their dreams are cruelly cut down by her illness… and all to some of the most emotionally charged music ever written. So long as the music, libretto and script are adhered to a film version can't go wrong - the director generally sticks to it and doesn't force his own interpretations on us too much. When he does, it works: a restrained use of artistic license. And there's nice imagery, plush backgrounds and clever use of colour. Trouble is, the atmosphere generated by a live performance is lost with a film – the lavish 2008 Met Opera production by Zefferelli recorded with Angela Georghiu and Ramon Vargas had its faults too but imho is preferable to this. We all probably have our own favourite versions of Puccini's most famous opera – mine is the May 1938 complete recording in Milan with Beniamino Gigli as Rodolfo (especially of O Mimi, Tu Piu Non Torni at the beginning of Act 4 - something so beautiful which has not been bettered since the advent of stereo or digital - since the singer was unrepeatable). What's yours? For arguments sake I could also say the legendary Lucrezia Bori's Mimi still resonates well through the acoustic mono hiss from her century-old records.Netrebko has a fine and well controlled voice, but having seen her repeatedly wallow in a swimsuit to Dvorak's Song To The Moon on the late UK Classic FM TV I still wonder whether she's punching above her weight with operas like La Boheme – incidentally great blood spattered acting in the Met's Lucia Di Lammermoor a few months ago but is she colouratura enough? Her acting for the camera here is also fine, something which is occasionally in doubt when she's performing live – however the rapturous applause from her adoring Met audiences for her various performances this year leave no doubt of her superstardom. Favourite bits from many: O Soave Fancuilla - definitely not bathed in moonlight; Dunque: E Propio Finita in the pouring snow; naturally the climax back in the garret – as suitably tearjerking as it should be. However, this is a film (with minor faults) well worth the time/effort and an admirable vehicle for Anna Netrebko, as it should be. Brava!