SYNOPSIS OF LA BOHÈME

THE STORY

ACT I.

In their Latin Quarter garret, the artist Marcello and poet Rodolfo try to keep warm by burning pages from Rodolfo's latest drama. They are joined by Colline, a young philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician who has landed a job and brings food, fuel and funds. While they celebrate their unexpected fortune, the landlord, Benoit, comes to collect the rent. Plying the older man with wine, they urge him to tell of his flirtations, then throw him out in mock indignation when he mentions his wife. As the friends depart for a Christmas Eve celebration at the Café Momus, Rodolfo promises to join them soon, staying behind to write. There is a knock at the door: the visitor is a neighbor, Mimì, whose candle has gone out on the drafty stairs. When Mimì suddenly feels faint, Rodolfo offers her wine, then relights her candle and helps her to the door. Mimì realizes she has lost her key, and as the two search for it, both candles are blown out. In the moonlight the poet takes the girl's icy hand, telling her his dreams ("Che gelida manina"). She then recounts her life alone, embroidering flowers and waiting for spring ("Mi chiamano Mimì"). Drawn to each other ("O soave fanciulla"), Mimì and Rodolfo slowly leave for the café.

ACT II.

Amid shouts of street hawkers, Rodolfo buys Mimì a bonnet near the Café Momus before introducing her to his friends. They all sit down and order supper. The toy vendor Parpignol passes by, besieged by children. Marcello's former girlfriend, Musetta, enters ostentatiously on the arm of the elderly, wealthy Alcindoro, arousing the painter's jealousy. Trying to regain his attention, she sings a waltz about her popularity ("Quando me'n vo'"). Complaining that her shoe pinches, Musetta sends Alcindoro to fetch a new pair, then falls into Marcello's arms. Joining a group of marching soldiers, the Bohemians leave Alcindoro to face the bill when he returns.

ACT III.

At dawn on the snowy outskirts of Paris, a Customs Officer admits farm women to the city. Musetta and revelers are heard inside a tavern. Soon Mimì appears, searching for the place where the reunited Marcello and Musetta now live. When the painter emerges, she pours out her distress over Rodolfo's jealousy ("O buon Marcello, aiuto!"). It is best they part, she says. Rodolfo, who has been asleep in the tavern, is heard, and Mimì hides; Marcello thinks she has left. The poet first tells Marcello he wants to separate from his sweetheart because she is fickle, but when pressed, he breaks down, confessing his fear that her ill health can only worsen in the poverty they share. Overcome, Mimì stumbles forward to bid her lover farewell ("Donde lieta uscì") as Marcello runs into the tavern to investigate Musetta's raucous laughter. While Mimì and Rodolfo recall their happiness, Musetta quarrels with Marcello (quartet: "Addio, dolce svegliare"). The painter and his mistress part in fury, but Mimì and Rodolfo decide to stay together until spring.

ACT IV.

Some months later, separated from their sweethearts, Rodolfo and Marcello lament their loneliness in the garret (duet: "O Mimì, tu più non torni"). Colline and Schaunard bring a meager meal. The four stage a dance, which turns into a mock fight. The merrymaking is ended when Musetta bursts in, saying Mimì is downstairs, too weak to climb up. As Rodolfo runs to her, Musetta tells how Mimì asked to be taken to her lover to die. While Mimì is made comfortable, Marcello goes with Musetta to sell her earrings for medicine, and Colline leaves to pawn his cherished overcoat ("Vecchia zimarra"). Alone, Mimì and Rodolfo wistfully recall their first days together ("Sono andati?"), but she is seized with coughing. When the others return, Musetta gives Mimì a muff to warm her hands and prays for her life. Mimì dies quietly, and when Schaunard discovers she is dead, Rodolfo runs to her side, calling her name.

THE BACKGROUND

La Bohème, Puccini's fourth opera, has become the most popular Italian lyric stage work after Verdi's Aida. If this success justifies the composer's pains, the work's early tribulations bore little hint of the unified, spontaneous feeling embodied in La Bohème. Puccini had been working on La Lupa, a story by Giovanni Verga, but was dissuaded from it by Cosima Wagner's daughter Blandine von Bülow, whom he met on an ocean voyage.

In La Bohème he found a reflection of his own youthful struggles, but Ruggero Leoncavallo, the composer of Pagliacci, claimed prior interest. Leoncavallo's version, rushed to completion and staged in Venice fifteen months after Puccini's, gave Henry Mürger's novel of Parisian Latin Quarter life a less continuous, more melodramatic interpretation. The secret of Puccini's score, which made audiences forget his rival's, was its light, poetic quality.

The young Arturo Toscanini conducted the first La Bohème, in Turin on February 1, 1896. The U.S. premiere fell to the Dal Conte company during a visit to Los Angeles (Oct. 14, 1897), and the Metropolitan Opera first presented the work on December 26, 1900, with Nellie Melba and Albert Saléza, Luigi Mancinelli on the podium.

© Copyright OPERA NEWS 2007. Reprinted with permission.