Hugo Jensen
At the PRM Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York on the evening of October 5, 2026, guest performer Yixuan Li sang “Quando m’en vo” from Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème. Heard through the concert’s live stream and recording, the performance made a strong impression through the breadth and carrying power of Li’s voice.
The aria asks a great deal of its singer, sustaining a line that must remain expressive across an extended musical span. Li met that demand with a voice that sounded open and assured, yet also carried considerable force. Her sound seemed to travel easily, giving the impression of filling the concert hall from one end to the other. That projection gave the performance presence without reducing it to sheer volume.
The aria’s broader structure also allowed the listener to hear how Li adjusted her treatment of recurring melodic material as the music moved through different sections. At some moments, she drew the line inward, shaping it with greater restraint and delicacy. Elsewhere, she let it expand, using the full breadth of her voice to give the phrase a more expansive sweep. These shifts made the repeated melodic ideas feel newly considered rather than simply restated.
Li’s ability to move between intimacy and openness was one of the performance’s most appealing qualities. The voice had enough strength to command attention, but her more restrained phrasing gave it contrast and detail. Together, these choices brought both scale and variety to Puccini’s writing.
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