La bohème ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadri, tableaux or "images", rather than atti (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger. The story is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle (known in French as "") of a poor seamstress and her artist friends.
The world premiere of La bohème was on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, conducted by the 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini. Since then, La bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide.
In 1946, 50 years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a commemorative performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the performance was later released by RCA Victor on vinyl record, tape and compact disc. It is the only recording ever made of a Puccini opera by its original conductor.
Origin of the story
As credited on its title page, the libretto of La bohème is based on Henri Murger's 1851 novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème, a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in Paris in the 1840s. Although often called a novel, the book has no unified plot. Like the 1849 play drawn from the book by Murger and Théodore Barrière, the opera's libretto focuses on the relationship between Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death. Also like the play, the libretto combines two characters from the novel, Mimì and Francine, into the single character of Mimì. Early in the composition stage Puccini was in dispute with the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo, who said that he had offered Puccini a completed libretto and felt that Puccini should defer to him. Puccini responded that he had had no idea of Leoncavallo's interest and that having been working on his own version for some time, he felt that he could not oblige him by abandoning the opera. Leoncavallo completed his own version in which Marcello was sung by a tenor and Rodolfo by a baritone. It was not as successful as Puccini's and is now rarely performed.
Much of the libretto is original. Major sections of acts two and three are the librettists' invention, with only a few passing references to incidents and characters in Murger. Most of acts one and four follow the book, piecing together episodes from various chapters. The final scenes in acts one and four—the scenes with Rodolfo and Mimì—resemble both the play and the book. The story of their meeting closely follows chapter 18 of the book, in which the two lovers living in the garret are not Rodolphe and Mimì at all, but rather Jacques and Francine. The story of Mimì's death in the opera draws from two different chapters in the book, one relating Francine's death and the other relating Mimì's.
The published libretto includes a note from the librettists briefly discussing their adaptation. Without mentioning the play directly, they defend their conflation of Francine and Mimì into a single character: "Chi può non confondere nel delicato profilo di una sola donna quelli di Mimì e di Francine?" ("Who cannot confuse in the delicate profile of one woman the personality both of Mimì and of Francine?"). At the time, the book was in the public domain, Murger having died without heirs, but rights to the play were still controlled by Barrière's heirs.
Performance history and reception
Initial success The first performance of La bohème took place in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio and was conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini. The role of Rodolfo was played by Evan Gorga with Cesira Ferrani as Mimì, but Gorga was unable to accommodate the high tessitura and the music had to be transposed down for him. The initial response of the audience at the first performance was subdued and critical responses were polarized. Despite this varied introductory response, the opera quickly became popular throughout Italy and productions were soon mounted by the following companies: The Teatro di San Carlo (14 March 1896, with Elisa Petri as Musetta and Antonio Magini-Coletti as Marcello); The Teatro Comunale di Bologna (4 November 1896, with Amelia Sedelmayer as Musetta and Umberto Beduschi as Rodolfo); The Teatro Costanzi (17 November 1896, with Maria Stuarda Savelli as Mimì, Enrico Giannini-Grifoni as Rodolfo, and Maurizio Bensaude as Marcello); La Scala (15 March 1897, with Angelica Pandolfini as Mimì, Camilla Pasini as Musetta, Fernando De Lucia as Rodolfo, and Edoardo Camera as Marcello); La Fenice (26 December 1897, with Emilia Merolla as Mimì, Maria Martelli as Musetta, Giovanni Apostolu and Franco Mannucci as Rodolfo, and Ferruccio Corradetti as Marcello); Teatro Regio di Parma (29 January 1898, with Solomiya Krushelnytska as Mimì, Lina Cassandro as Musetta, Pietro Ferrari as Rodolfo, and Pietro Giacomello as Marcello); Paris Opera (13 June 1898); and the Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo (21 August 1898, with Emilia Corsi as Mimì, Annita Barone as Musetta, Giovanni Apostolu as Rodolfo, and Giovanni Roussel as Marcello).
The first performance of La bohème outside Italy was at the Teatro de la Ópera in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 June 1896. The protagonists were Hariclea Darclée and Emilio De Marchi, conducted by Edoardo Mascheroni.Sala, Juan Andrés (1969), "Actividad musical en Buenos Aires antes de la inauguración del actual Teatro Colón", in Caamaño, Roberto, La historia del Teatro Colón, vol. 1, pp. 78–79. Buenos Aires: Editorial Cinetea.
The opera was performed in Alexandria, Lisbon, and Moscow in early 1897. The United Kingdom premiere took place at the Theatre Royal in Manchester, on 22 April 1897, in a presentation by the Carl Rosa Opera Company supervised by Puccini.The Manchester Guardian, 23 April 1897, p. 6 This performance was given in English and starred Alice Esty as Mimì, Bessie McDonald as Musetta, Robert Cunningham as Rodolfo, and William Paull as Marcello. On 2 October 1897 the same company gave the opera's first staging at the Royal Opera House in London and on 14 October 1897 in Los Angeles for the opera's United States premiere. The opera reached New York City on 16 May 1898 when it was performed at Wallack's Theatre with Giuseppe Agostini as Rodolfo.Brown, Thomas Allston. A History of the New York Stage, Vol. 3. (Dodd, Mead and Company; New York; 1903), p. 359; and "Musical and Dramatic. Puccini's La bohème Sung in Italian Last Night at Wallack's Theatre," The New York Times, 17 May 1898 The first production of the opera actually produced by the Royal Opera House itself premiered on 1 July 1899 with Nellie Melba as Mimì, Zélie de Lussan as Musetta, Fernando De Lucia as Rodolfo, and Mario Ancona as Marcello.
La bohème premiered in Germany at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin on 22 June 1897. The French premiere of the opera was presented by the Opéra-Comique on 13 June 1898 at the Théâtre des Nations. The production used a French translation by Paul Ferrier and starred Julia Guiraudon as Mimì, Jeanne Tiphaine as Musetta, Adolphe Maréchal as Rodolfo, and Lucien Fugère as Marcello. The Czech premiere of the opera was presented by the National Theatre on 27 February 1898.
20th and 21st centuries La bohème continued to gain international popularity throughout the early 20th century and the Opéra-Comique alone had already presented the opera one hundred times by 1903. The Belgian premiere took place at La Monnaie on 25 October 1900 using Ferrier's French translation with Marie Thiérry as Mimì, Léon David as Rodolfo, Eugène-Charles Badiali as Marcello, sets by Pierre Devis, Armand Lynen, and Albert Dubosq, and Philippe Flon conducting. The Metropolitan Opera staged the work for the first time on 26 December 1900 with Nellie Melba as Mimì, Annita Occhiolini-Rizzini as Musetta, Albert Saléza as Rodolfo, Giuseppe Campanari as Marcello, and Luigi Mancinelli conducting. La bohème was the last opera performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera's original 1883 building on 16 April 1966, conducted by George Schick."An Aria of Lincoln Center – The Metropolitan Opera" by Veronica Shine, Opera Today, 3 February 2012; Met performances 1966
The opera was first performed in Brazil at the Theatro da Paz in Belém on 21 April 1900 with the Brazilian soprano Tilde Maragliano as Mimì, Maria Cavallini as Musetta, Giuseppe Agostini as Rodolfo and Alessandro Modesti as Marcello. The conductor was Giorgio Polacco.Páscoa, Márcio: Cronologia Lírica de Belém, p. 145
The following year La bohème was presented at the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil, on 2 July 1901 with Elvira Miotti as Mimì, Mabel Nelma as Musetta, Michele Sigaldi as Rodolfo, and Enrico De Franceschi as Marcello. Other premieres soon followed: Melbourne: 13 July 1901 (Her Majesty's Theatre; first performance in Australia) Monaco: 1 February 1902, Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Monte Carlo with Nellie Melba as Mimì, Enrico Caruso as Rodolfo, Alexis Boyer as Marcello, and Léon Jehin conducting. Prato: 25 December 1902, Regio Teatro Metastasio with Ulderica Persichini as Mimì, Norma Sella as Musetta, Ariodante Quarti as Rodolfo, and Amleto Pollastri as Marcello. Catania: 9 July 1903, Politeama Pacini with Isabella Costa Orbellini as Mimì, Lina Gismondi as Musetta, Elvino Ventura as Rodolfo, and Alfredo Costa as Marcello. Austria: 25 November 1903, Vienna State Opera in Vienna with Selma Kurz as Mimì, Marie Gutheil-Schoder as Musetta, Fritz Schrödter as Rodolfo, Gerhard Stehmann as Marcello, and Gustav Mahler conducting. Sweden: 19 May 1905, Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, presented by the Royal Swedish Opera with Maria Labia as Mimì.
Puccini died in Brussels on 29 November 1924, and the news of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème. The opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin's Funeral March for the stunned audience.
The first production of La bohème at the Salzburg Festival did not occur until as late as July 2012. However, that festival has not shown much interest in the operas of Puccini, only ever having one production each of Tosca and Turandot in its entire history.Salzburg Festival. Retrieved 28 October 2014
Critical reception Despite the opera's popularity with audiences, Puccini has been the target of condescension by some music critics who find his music insufficiently sophisticated or difficult. The composer Benjamin Britten wrote in 1951, "[A]fter four or five performances I never wanted to hear Bohème again. In spite of its neatness, I became sickened by the cheapness and emptiness of the music."Britten, Benjamin. "Verdi – A Symposium", Opera magazine, February 1951, pp. 113–114
Roles
+RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 1 February 1896Conductor: Arturo ToscaniniRodolfo, a poettenorEvan GorgaMimì, a seamstresssopranoCesira FerraniMarcello, a painterbaritoneTieste WilmantMusetta, a singersopranoCamilla PasiniSchaunard, a musicianbaritoneAntonio Pini-CorsiColline, a philosopherbassMichele MazzaraBenoît, their landlordbassAlessandro PoloniniAlcindoro, a state councillorbassParpignol, a toy vendortenorDante ZucchiA customs SergeantbassFelice FogliaStudents, working girls, townsfolk, shopkeepers, street-vendors, soldiers, waiters, children
Synopsis Place: Paris Time: Around 1830.
Act 1
In the four bohemians' garret (Christmas Eve)