Thursday, January 02, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

CDVS

You have to be one serious egomaniac to sell an album of Puccini's opera, La Boheme, and then give it a name as self-centered as The Original Cast Recording of Baz Luhrmann's Production of Puccini's La Boheme. Shit, even the best classical album of the last 20 years, 1984's soundtrack to Amadeus, was named simply Amadeus. I don't mean to disrespect Luhrmann, except to say he is a lardass, but fuck him.

You didn't have to watch all of the bloated turdbucket Moulin Rouge to appreciate him. Luhrmann certainly should be credited for his originality. Moulin Rouge was an anti-mainstream mainstream film. And he has directed Puccini's La Boheme for the stage with a new setting, 1957. He tried this before, when he was less famous, and classical snobs huffed. But now he's a star, so the show is a star.

I haven't seen Luhrmann's production, but the soundtrack is pretty close to Puccini's Italian melodrama, which means it's good. You can't fuck Puccini up. He was a genius. The score has Puccini's sweeping, fatalistically romantic strings and vocal lines sung by solid tenors and sopranos who only sound thin if you're picky like me. I'd rather listen to a La Boheme recording by Caruso if I could find one, or Pavarotti's La Boheme. Pavarotti, the world's greatest tenor, named his album just La Boheme. But Pavarotti knew better than to bill himself over the original artist.

Another singer, teen-hottie/pop-operatic vocalist Charlotte Church, named her new album The Best Of even though she could have followed Luhrmann's lead and called it Charlotte Church's Original Recordings of Charlotte Church's Production of Charlotte Church's Supercool Songs. But she isn't a tool like some Luhrmanns I know.

It's too early to tell if Church will grow into a great vocalist once she's fully developed her pipes. The 17-year-old Welsh soprano is a stronger, more accurate singer than Sarah Brightman, a late-comer to opera, but she sings some of the same stuff as Brightman: Andrew Lloyd Webber's churchy "Pie Jesu," for one, and "Ave Maria." However, Brightman went with Schubert's "Ave" and Church included Bach's "Ave" here, a classic struggle between a late-comer and a traditionalist.

If Church is lucky--and it will take luck of the wind pipes, the way Maria Callas was born with hers (a dedication to development is assumed)--then Church will become a voice of her generation. We'll see. There are tons of sopranos in the world. For now, her Best Of is good enough to distract someone looking for a fresh, emotional voice that is angelic with youth.--Jack Sayre