Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazon: La Boheme for young lovers

The musical liaison between Anna Netrebko and Roland Villazon is set to enter a new round with the release of their latest opera project. “La Boheme” follows in the footsteps of the tremendously succesful “La Traviata”, whose complete recording, solo CDs and DVD dominated classical charts for months roughly two years ago. Again issued by German classical label Deutsche Grammophon, this new encounter between Netrebko and Villazon was supervised by French conductor and artistic director of the Vienna Symphonic Radio Orchestra Bertrand de Billy. Even though the appearance of the current “dream duo of opera” will probably be enough for most to make for their local record store, there is a significant difference between the Netrebko/Villazon version of “La Boheme” and “La Traviata”. While the latter was recorded live, the former had to cope with the extended difficulties of transporting the excitement of the stage situation to the studio. “We are in a strange situation here”, Bertrand de Billy summed things up, “We’re making an opera without a stage. We’re making an opera with fantastic singers. We have to replace visible sentiments with audible ones. Everything must be exagerated with song so that the feelings can be understood. When you laugh on the stage, the laughter must be heard. When you smile, then the smile must be heard in the singing.” Despite these challenges, he also stressed the importance of this new “La Boheme”’s line-up: “This is where we are lucky with this cast, because they have such fun acting.”