By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 26 January 2007]

Not many tenors these days excel in the full-bodied, lyric Puccini and Verdi repertory once owned by the likes of Carlo Bergonzi, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Luciano Pavarotti. The closest we have may be the Italian tenor Marcello Giordani, who took over the role of Rodolfo on Wednesday night for the first of four final performances in the Metropolitan Opera’s current revival of Puccini’s “Bohème.” His Mimi was the Chilean soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, which united the stars of the Met’s acclaimed Anthony Minghella production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”