On this day in 1981 “the Zeffirelli Bohème” opened at the Metropolitan Opera.
It was an afternoon of spectacular singing, particularly from the two principals and the glorious Lyric Opera Chorus.
Someone—a deranged purist no doubt—heckled Javier Camarena from the balcony of the opera house for withholding the infamous high F during “Credeasi, misera.”
Los Angeles saw the first U.S. performance of Giacomo Puccini’s snow-dusted weeper in 1897 just a year after the young Toscanini led the prima in Turin.
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