La Bohème

Che gelida manina. Gets me every time.

It was the first opera I saw, a visiting company at my Comp. school, lots of us cried! I enjoyed the programme about Puccini last night, think it was on BBC4. I've been to Lucca in the dark so it was nice to see shots of it in the light! I think I prefer the Magic Flute... 

Strangely, I’ve just listened in the van of a recording  of Enrico Caruso - La Bohème: Che Gelida Manina (1906) perhaps the greatest tenor of all time.  

I really like his original recordings not the digitally enhanced recordings 

I think it depends on the repertoire. 

I've always liked Caruso but for lighter German opera and lieder I do like Fritz Wunderlich. Another who seems to get overlooked is Alfredo Kraus, a Spanish tenor who was singing Che Gelida Manina on a disc of Spanish tenors I was listening to the other night. Pretty good.