Giacomo Puccini La Bohème opera to libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. This is a motion picture version of the opera directed by Robert Dornhelm. Stars Anna Netrebko (Mimì), Rolando Villazón (Rodolfo), Nicole Cabell (Musetta), George von Bergen [voice by Boaz Daniel] (Marcello), Adrian Eröd [voice by Stéphane Degout] (Schaunard) , and Vitaly Kovalyou (Colline). Bertrand de Billy conducts the Baravian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chorus of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the Children's Chorus of the Staatstheatre am Gärtnerplatz, Munich. Released in 2009, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. An HDVD of this movie was released in the U.S. by Kultur, which may be restricted to Region A. It appears this Axiom version is region free.   Grade: A-

In this mini-review we discuss the merits of the Dornhelm movie as compared to the Opus Arte HDVD of La Bohème directed by Giancarlo del Monaco at Theatro Real in Madrid. Earlier we praised del Monaco for "movie-slick" directing with "fine acting touches." And now we have a real movie made with the full armada of technology devoted to photographing persons who are acting to match pre-recorded music.  (That's right, Netrebko, Villazón, Cabell, and Kovalyov were not recorded at the photographic sessions. Von Bergen and Eröd are not singers at all  and were selected for their looks).