Can somebody explain Mimi to me?
Mimi’s hiding behind the bottle of wine
The heroine from La boheme, that is. Why are we supposed to care? Is this – finally!!! – a story about the good girl next door where – finally!!! – the cheeky, sexy one has to take the sidekick spot? Looks like Musetta can do her own rescuing.
Why is Mimi so popular? Because we feel sorry for her? I’ve been told “the music is so beautiful”, but I’ve always struggled to remember how stuff like Si, mi chiamo Mimi and Che gelinda manina goes. I do – unsurprisingly – have a better idea about Musetta’s aria.
Through the opera Mimi is massively passive belying her initial boldness of visiting Rodolfo and pretending she’s lost her key. Immediately after this somewhat lively entrance she settles into the role of Rodolfo’s girlfriend. There’s a bit of drama midway through where she wants to spare him heartache by passive-aggressively breaking up with him when she knows she’s dying. So she’s continuously lying to him in one way or another but it’s ok because she means well and she deserves a bit of happiness, doesn’t she? You’d think she could’ve got her happiness without these unnecessary lies. But then there’d be no plot. Because it’s the 1800s and Musetta is a bit too bold to take centre stage.
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Posted on August 5, 2015, in operatic damsels in distress and tagged la boheme, puccini. Bookmark the permalink. 68 Comments.
opera, innit? 
this is part of project-take-emil to opera? 🙂
Eh?
ex mother in law
oh, she’s getting La traviata 😉 I am not putting myself through this whingefest!
and here i thought you had a change of heart and decided to take her to see the most popular suffering girl 😉
I’ll only go see this one when I have a bad cough!
i wanted to see it last july (2014) w Harteros w/o knowing the storyline but unsucessful getting tix.. now am curious what she made of the role.. conlosation prize for that trip to box office was sesto in high heels (but not magnets!)
was JK Rodolfo? in that case… 😉
forgot, but might have been reason tix scarced.. i might also get this mixed up w another char… inst this also the role your fav sop AN took at salzburg recently?
you know I care a lot!
Trying to explain why people like Puccini is like trying to explain why people voted for Rob Ford. One can articulate all the reasons but they still don’t make any sense.
Nice comparison 😀
He takes the chords apart and he puts them together again.
I could never get into La Boheme either. It was one of the first operas I ever saw (age 12, school trip to dress rehearsal at Seattle Opera) and at the time I was like – eh, whatever. Over twenty years later and my reaction to it is still – eh, whatever.
I was in a bit meh but I kind of like it territory until I heard Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo. The high notes in Che gelida manina rang out around the Four Seasons like nothing I had ever heard and I, finally, got why people get the vapours over Italian tenors.
I take it Verdi tenors never made that impact?
Not so far. It might happen I suppose but Puccini does rather specialise in setting up those kind of moments.
Funny, I never thought of there being much difference between Verdi tenors and Puccini tenors. Are they specializing that much now? They didn’t used to.
I don’t think it’s the singer as much as the music. Maybe I just haven’t listened to the right Verdi pieces but there don’t seem to be the same heart stopping moments and that’s said despite generally liking Verdi much more than Puccini.
ha, interesting! I always feel Verdi is over the top emotional (and hence hard to listen to for any length of time) and Puccini just sort of schmaltzy.
Puccini is mostly about chords. Once you’ve figured that out, you can pretty much tell where he’s going.
Verdi is all (well, partly) about messing with melody. Once he gets out of his journeywork you can never tell where a melodic line is going unless he wants you to, and it’s not necessarily even with the singer. He also likes to use detail of orchestration/vocal line to flesh out character psychology, which I think is kinda cool when it comes to things like Iago creating a riot by going off the beat or our being able to see exactly where in the score Philip II loses the fight with the Grand Inquisitor.
Sorry, fan-girling.Will go back in my corner now.
fan-girl away! Learning new things = priceless.
I’ve actually watched (the first couple of acts from) a few productions with the volume set to low 😉
totally (un)related(?), i kept getting this mixed up with tosca! (not knowing the storyline to both aide greatly the confusion! i just know they’re popular but never knew what about.. , may be you can have another post “somebody explains tosca” so i can finally read? 😉
as far as I understand it’s this: Tosca is a singer, she loves Cavaradossi who’s a painter, he has a friend who’s a revolutionary of some sort, friend comes over, he hides him, Tosca thinks he’s hiding another woman (she’s very jealous by nature). Scarpia who’s the villain wants Tosca but she hates him, he finds out her bf is hiding the other chap and blackmails her that he’ll tell and the bf gets the ax, in exchange for not saying he wants her to sleep with him, she agrees but can’t bring herself to it and kills him, the bf gets the ax anyway, she finds out and jumps off the window. The end.
oh, another trovatore!! meh. (but AH does sing the role, guess i’ll have to put up with it at some point :D)
and even more unrelated, i put bassoon on hold coz i just saw this now avail on yt and have been listening for last 1.5hr..
!!! Back after so long 😀 Bisou! I can finally see it in one piece after over 2 years. Incidentally, last week I found the book this production is based on and it’s more interesting than I thought.
book? i got also a book, fully in German, which i dumped to Smorgy for translation of interviews with MM, AH, and VK.. should have pushed for translation of set!
I mean the book about the backstory, the bio of the Duchess of Devonshire and her very long and complicated threesome with hubby and best friend.
the book you’re talking about, did it come with the DVD or did you get it separately in Vienna?
oh, that explains the note of that yt video: “Devonshire-House in London Piccadilly”! book i got was from Vienna, forgot how i got it, coz i never pay for anything extra 😀 .
where the interviews good then?
<a href=https://thadieu.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/marc-minkowskis-alcina-interview/” target=”_blank”>MM</>, AH, and VK 🙂
ps- in case you didn’t see links, they might be in the spam box coz i put 3..
the link to MM didn’t work. I’ll go check them out, cheers 🙂
let’s try MM again , i like both his and AH’s . VK’s is not as much in depth.
cheers! With VK it’s ok, I rarely read her interviews as I get what I need from her interpretation already.
now that i ve seen so many alcinas, i have to say this wiener version is really special, superb singers, very 😉 engaging set, dead gorgeous otchestra, everything fits. i loove the costumes too! was really a special time 🙂
but it’s not better than the Aix Alcina 😉 kidding. I’m still trying to get over Jaroussky being molested by Petibon 😀
just done with my Verdi dosage, and on the french theme decided to venture to Aix Alcina.. she’s got a lab with a boy wrapped in plastic in the kitchen! and Jaroussky shirtless for the boys (in audience) to drool! followed by a young boy running around in her bedroom! perhaps time for another session with running commentary! D: (for example, that
damn hotoutfit of Bradamante’s! and they have a full training staff in that haushold, giving Bradamante petting lesson!Bradamante’s outfit is hot but I’m not so into the red dress and the dolled up version later on. I really hate the feather business…
oh no, really? don’t destroy my dream.. meanwhile, ruggerio (with helium voice) is now retreating to bed with Melisso in military fatigues in hot pursuit… and undressing him..)
maybe you have different tastes in dressed and Bradamantes 😉
oh, i take Bradamante flexing muscles flipping mattress anytime! (hope you didn’t miss that bit too! she was impressive!) no dress please.. 😉
ok, since am already spamming your box.. really love the orchestra!! (and conductor’s take, he superbly supports the singer, not missing 1 beat!) . also, helium aside, am quite impressed with PJ’s phrasing. And more importantly quite like PP’s singing! might have been the staging too, but i like her take more than S.Piau’s (think it’s the staging).
I did miss that! Must go back but now I am busy with… something else. Have you heard Sta nell’Ircana?
yes yes, i understand, busy with … 😉
no, haven’t gotten there yet, am really sitting through the whole show, now at PP’s “ah mio cor”, scenery is like out of that x-file episode with Scully getting impregnated with this scary worm-like thing as the cult looking on.. but PP’s phrasing is gorgeously impressive! i quite like her here more than last year’s.
(oh, since we’re on this scene, it’s worth noting one of her servants is a fully-in-dress male)
well, I’m trying to record some stuff hopefully for a “podcast” (I have all these things I want to talk about that don’t lend themselves well to posts). I was really running with it last night but tonight I’m quite tongue tied… though I managed to make myself a mike stand so as to avoid the stupid clicks…
podcast! how revolutionary 😉
podcast = for chatterboxes.
i got there now! helium boy is all talks, Bradamante (despite the red dress) is all action! i even like the way she wipes the binoculars! (and arsenals!)
that was nice! it was the wrong time for a dress.
as i was explaining: you can drape a dress over her, but you can’t take the swag out of her! https://thadieu.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/bradamante.png
(oh, the finale ‘s drums are very nice!!)
I’m going to speak to Santa about a nice contralto for Xmas 😉
be careful with “red dress” attachment!
!!! the curse of 2015! 😀
the
cursebless of 2015 😉I’m pretending to complain 😉
i know 😉
ha, and I thought I was doing such a good job covering that!
your facial expression that day gave you away 😉
I should try to pretending to others instead of you, eh? 😉
i’ll keep quiet next time
you’re too kind 😀
oh no… the red high heels, u.r.g.h.
but we did get to see Bradamante’s 6-pack doing lighting fast coloratura! and whatever you call that thing.. (bandage? wrap? tuck? never seen it before 😀 )
I missed the bandage! truth is after the first 20min I just zipped around for some of the good bits (last trio).
at trio: now i get it!! that explains all the ref to Alcina in giving-birth pain! i still quite like Bradamante’s attitude! she’s gonna hook up with Alcina after this, i sure!
between those two Ruggiero is finished 😉
ps- now Oronte is offering Ruggiero a pet fox, they’re getting on 😉
Ruggiero should be a pet fox 😉