LA BOHÈME – PUCCINI
Presented on May 23, 25, 30, Jun 3 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin and on Jun 19, 22 at the Opera House Cork as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Rita Talarico / Irma Capece Minutolo[May 30, Jun 3] / Maria Angela Rosati[Jun 19, 22] – Mimi
Ettore Babini – Rodolfo
Limbania Leoni / Vittorina Magnaghi[Jun 19, 22] – Musetta
Silvano Carroli / Franco Pagliazzi[Jun 19, 22] – Marcello
Alfonso Marchica / Loris Gambelli[Jun 19, 22] – Colline
Alberto Oro – Schaunard
Ernesto Vezzosi – Benoit / Alcindoro
Adolfo Camozzo / Napoleone Annovazzi[Jun 19, 22] – Conductor
Maria Sofia Marasca – Producer
Listen to a fragment of this “La Boheme” production, recorded at Cork Opera House on either June 19th or 22nd 1967 by Franco Pagliazzi
This fragment of the Cork “Boheme” is of huge historic value because it’s the only audio record we have of that 1967 visit, the first the DGOS had made since 1952, but to a brand new Opera House with a big stage and a magnificent acoustic. The recording suggests that it was made upstairs in the auditorium.
The Opera was also presented in Cork:
‘I caught the opera bug in the spring of 1967,’ admitted Harold Johnson, Cork-born chartered accountant who up to then had been more interested in straight theatre. A genial, outgoing Corkonian, he had seen the city go through a difficult time after the old Opera House was gutted by fire in 1955 and had played his part in ensuring that it would he replaced by a modern home for opera and music generally. As a shareholder, he was interested in its future as a venue and hoped to see it provide the best in entertainment. Now after more than a decade without grand opera, the new Opera House was opening its doors to the DGOS and its presentations of “La Boheme”, “Madama Butterfly” and “Lucia di Lammermoor”; the casts, conductors and producers were nearly all international and as usual they would be supported by the large DGOS chorus. Undeniably the city was starved of grand opera and it was expected the productions would be greeted by full houses. Nothing of the sort. Harold Johnson was present at Monday’s opening of “Boheme” and on his own admission, was shocked by the smallness of the attendance – the theatre was less than half full. He had been deeply moved by the performance, especially the climax culminating in Mimi’s death. Musically and theatrically, the production was an eye-opener to him and by the time he left the Opera House he had to confess he had caught the opera bug. ‘I had no doubt in the world about it. I think it was the impact the music and drama together made on me and the superb singing by tenor Ettore Babini and soprano Maria Angela Rosati in the main parts, not forgetting either baritone Franco Pagliazzi, as Marcello, and Vittorina Magnaghi’s Musetta. Maestro Annovazzi wove the whole thing together, as it were, with a magic wand.’ Despite the small crowd, it had been an exciting evening in the theatre and like everyone else he joined wholeheartedly in the applause at the final curtain, and it seemed to go on for at least five minutes. The review in the Cork Examiner next morning reflected the mood in the Opera House. ‘The prolonged applause was a magnificent tribute to a magnificent company. What a pity therefore that so few Cork opera-goers turned up for the performance. While the balcony was predictably full, the remainder of the house was half empty; this must make it disheartening to the artists to take the boards in such conditions.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 