La Bo
If you want a proper demonstration of what it is like when singers give it 110%, you could do a lot worse than La Bohème, which is about ART and POVERTY and STRUGGLE and DEATH FROM ALL OF THE ABOVE (PLUS BOOZE). I think this (from Sir Thomas Beecham’s marvellous Come To The Opera!) describes it very well:
“La Bohème is a testamant of youth. For that reason it is an opera one finds very difficult to criticise and almost impossible not to love. It is the most appealing and companionable of all Puccini’s operas, because it speaks to all of us of our own bohemia, no matter where we made it. In the heart of every man who has adored a Mimi or courted a Musetta, who has cracked a bottle and a jest with the Schaunards and Gollines of this world, the music of La Bohème will always hold a place. It is not profound music; neither is the heart of youth. If youth but knew…but the whole magic of youth is that it cannot know but can only feel. The emotion is never rank: over it all is that slight sparkle of frost that keeps it fresh, that faint silvery radiance that seems to cover the music with starry crystals.”
That bit about youth and feeling is very wise, I think. And I will guarantee that there is a copy of this in your nearest charity shop for about twenty five pence, sung by ACTUAL ITALIANS. You would be CRUEL and WRONG to leave it there.