La Bohème Synopsis - Story of Puccini's 1896 Opera La Bohème Synopsis La Bohème Synopsis The Story of Puccini's 1896 Four Act Opera Peter Wedd and Mary Plazas perform during the dress rehearsal of Francesco Zambello’s new production of Puccini’s much-loved opera La Boheme at the Royal Albert Hall February 25, 2004 in London. Photo by Bruno Vincent/Getty Images Premiered: February 1, 1896 - Teatro Regio, Turin Other Popular Opera Synopses: Puccini's La Bohème takes place in 1830s Paris, France. The Story of La Bohème La Bohème, ACT 1 In their tiny abysmal one-room attic apartment in Paris' Latin Quarter, the painter Marcello and his poet friend Rodolfo tear pages from Rodolfo's latest literary work and throw them into the small stove, hoping to keep the fire burning long enough to make it through the cold Christmas Eve night.

Their roommates Colline (a philosopher) and Schaunard (a musician) return home with food to eat, wine to drink, cigars to smoke, fuel to burn, and a bit of money collected from an eccentric man who hired Schaunard to play the violin to his dying parrot. Benoit, the landlord, stops by to collect the rent, and the four young men get him a little tipsy on wine then kick him out. continue reading below our video 5 Urban Myths That Rule the Ages The boys decide to go out Cafe Momus, but Rodolfo stays behind to write, promising to catch up with them later. After everyone leaves, Mimi, their pretty neighbor knocks at their door. Rodolfo opens the door to find that Mimi's candlelight has blown out. After he relights it for her, she realizes she has lost her key. As they frantically look for it, both of their candles blow out. They continue to look for her key within the room lit only by the moonlight. When their hands accidentally touch, something comes over Rodolfo.

He tells Mimi about his dreams in the aria "Che gelida manina." In return, she tells him that she used to live alone in a small loft apartment where she would embroider flowers while waiting for the blossoms of springtime. In the streets below the window, Rodolfo's roommates shout at him to join them. Rodolfo hollers back that he will be with them shortly. Mimi and Rodolfo are happy to be with each other and they set out to the cafe hand in hand. La Bohème, ACT 2 Rodolfo happily brings Mimi inside the cafe to introduce her to his friends. Moments later, Musetta, Marcello's former lover, makes her grand entrance while hanging on the arm of an wealthy elderly man named Alcindoro. Musetta has clearly grown tired of the old man's affections, and resorts to attracting Marcello's attention instead. Finally after singing her famous aria, "Quando men vo," , she is able to rid herself of Alcindoro and fall back into Marcello's arms.

When it is discovered that none of them has the money to pay for their meal, Musetta tells their waiter to charge everything to Alcindoro's account. With the sight of a group of soldiers marching past the cafe's windows, the bohemian friends quickly depart. Alcindoro returns to the table only to find a bill. La Bohème, ACT 3 In a tavern on the edge of Paris' city limits, Mimi wanders in while searching for Marcello and Musetta's new home. It isn't long until Marcello arrives and speaks with her. Mimi is concerned for Rodolfo. Ever since they fell in love, he has been extremely jealous. She tells Marcello she feels it is in their best interest if they separate for a while. Meanwhile, Rodolfo has made his way down to the same tavern. When he enters, Mimi quickly departs, but instead of leaving, she hides in a nearby corner while Marcello and Rodolfo are unaware. Rodolfo pulls up a seat next to Marcello and tells him that he wants to separate from Mimi. Marcello questions his reasoning and Rodolfo replies that he can't stand her sudden mood swings.

Marcello doubts Rodolfo is being honest and pressures him into telling the truth. Rodolfo breaks down and confesses he fears for Mimi's life. She is constantly coughing and he believes their poverty is only making things worse. Mimi is overcome with sorrow and comes out of hiding to wish her lover a fond farewell. Together, they remember their past happiness. Marcello on the other hand catches Musetta flirting with a strange man. He leaves the tavern with her as they hurl insults at each other. Mimi and Rodolfo stay behind and make a pact to stay together until spring, after which they can separate. La Bohème, ACT 4 Several months have passed and blossoms are emerging from the dormant earth. Marcello and Rodolfo find themselves in their apartment alone as their girlfriends left weeks before. Colline and Schaunard enter with a small meal, and it is decided among them that they will lighten their spirits with a lively dance. All of a sudden Musetta barges into the apartment informing them that Mimi awaits on the street below, too weak to climb the stairs. Rodolfo rushes down to greet her and carries her back up to their apartment.

Musetta hands Marcello her earrings while asking him to sell them so that she can buy medicine for Mimi. The other men clamor together to find things to sell and they all quickly rush down to the crowded streets. The two lovers are left alone and they think about the first time they met. Their memories are interrupted with violent fits of coughing. Finally, everyone returns, but Mimi's condition worsens. She drifts in and out of consciousness while Rodolfo holds her in his arms. Moments pass before he realizes that Mimi is no longer breathing. In his grief, he lays over her lifeless body while calling out her name. La Bohème Composer La Bohème Composer Pin It Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini was born in 1858 in the small Northern Italian town of Lucca. His family had been the musical heart of Lucca for several generations and the same was hoped for young Giacomo. His mother, Albina, was a single parent with seven children who scrimped and saved so that Giacomo could have music lessons.

To help with family finances, Puccini began working at age 11 as a church organist, and later earned money by playing piano in Lucca’s taverns. After seeing Verdi’s AIDA in Pisa at age 18, he moved to Milan to study at the Conservatory having decided that opera was his true path. To save money, he shared an apartment with several friends, dodging bill collectors and playing piano in bars for food. This experience would help Puccini breathe life into the young artists in LA BOHÈME. Puccini wrote his first opera, LE VILLI, for a competition. The judges didn’t like it but Giulio Ricordi, the most important publisher in Italy, did and saw great promise in Puccini. He paid Puccini a stipend for several years, and stood by him through several attempts to write a successful opera. Ricordi believed that Puccini would become famous and he was right. He made a fortune as the publisher of the world’s most popular operas: MANON LESCAUT, LA BOHÈME, TOSCA, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, and TURANDOT.

Puccini teamed up with librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa to adapt Henry Murger’s novel/play Scènes de la vie de Bohème into an opera. Puccini was all about the detail and tortured his librettists to get every detail just right. The first few performances were met with lukewarm responses but the overwhelming success in Palermo sealed the deal and LA BOHÈME has gone on to become one of the most performed and beloved operas in the repertory. La Bohème | Opera Australia Opera Australia Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera HouseJanuary 4 – March 24, 2017 Hide Dates and Prices Buy Tickets Hear the story behind the opera. Join us 45 minutes before this performance when a member of Opera Australia's artistic team will share their insights into the opera. Held in the Northern Foyer of the Joan Sutherland Theatre, this informal and informative talk will help you to get the most out of your opera experience. Thu 9.3.17 Buy Tickets Hear the story behind the opera. Join us 45 minutes before this performance when a member of Opera Australia's artistic team will share their insights into the opera.

Held in the Northern Foyer of the Joan Sutherland Theatre, this informal and informative talk will help you to get the most out of your opera experience. Wed 15.3.17 Buy Tickets With the flickering of a candle, love sparks. Two hands meet in the dark and four friends' lives are changed forever. The way that first love grabs hold of your insides and floods you with something you've never felt before. The fire that burns you the first time jealousy flares. The growing up you do in the instant you realise love can't last forever. Puccini takes these achingly human feelings and sets them to music — music that soars with the ecstacy of love, crackles with the pain of jealousy and cries with the agony of loss. Some human emotions are too big for words alone, and for that, we have music. La Bohème exposes your soul to the feelings that only music can express, and it opens our season most years because that's an experience everyone should have in their lifetime.

Gale Edwards' glittering production, set in the bohemian streets of 1930s Berlin, offers a perfect showcase for Mariangela Sicilia and Greta Bradman, sharing the role of Mimì. Head up the stairs at the Joan Sutherland Theatre to enjoy the pop-up bar with an unbeatable view of the harbour, exclusive to ticket holders. The bar opens 90 minutes before evening performances. See the menu . Watch the La Bohème trailer Photo Gallery La Bohème at Sydney Opera House in 2017 Video La Bohème: A listening guide Audio Listen to 'Mi chiamano Mimì' from La Bohème Conductor Mariangela Sicilia (until 23 Jan, except 5 & 7 Jan) Greta Bradman (5, 7 Jan & from 24 Feb) Rodolfo Arthur Espiritu (from 24 Feb) Musetta Please note: this production contains partial nudity. Running time: approximately 2 hours & 15 minutes, including one 20-minute interval. Performed in Italian with English surtitles.

The Story Hide A poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher walk into a bar (no really!) to celebrate a sudden windfall in a lean winter. It’s Christmas Eve, and the poet has just felt the first pangs of great love. When a seamstress knocks on his door searching for candlelight, the pair fall in love faster than she can sing, "Yes, they call me Mimì…" Between the ideals of love and art and the cruel realities of cold winters, bitter jealousies and empty pockets, two sets of lovers are trying to find their way. By the time the curtain falls, you’ll know the answer to an eternal question: Is love enough? Synopsis Hide ACT I It is Christmas Eve. Rodolfo, a poet, and Marcello, a painter, are freezing in their studio. Marcello is painting The Crossing of the Red Sea. Colline, a philosopher, arrives as the fire Rodolfo has lit with one of his manuscripts, flickers and dies. Schaunard brings reinforcements — food, wine and fuel for the fire, bought with unexpected money from his earnings as a musician. A knock at the door and Benoit, the landlord, arrives demanding the rent.

The four Bohemians ply him with wine and then bundle him off. Marcello, Colline and Schaunard go off to join the celebrations at Café Momus. Promising to join them soon, Rodolfo settles down to finish an article he is writing. There is another knock. This time it is a neighbour, Mimì — a beautiful young seamstress, holding her key and an unlit candle. She begs a light and Rodolfo obliges. Mimì departs and drops her key. Together they search for the key, and their hands touch. They tell each other about themselves and Rodolfo passionately declares his love. The new lovers then set off into the night to join the others. ACT II The square in which Café Momus is situated is the Bohemians' favourite haunt, bustling with shoppers and hawkers. Rodolfo buys his new love a bonnet. At the café, Marcello's old flame, Musetta, appears with a new admirer, Alcindoro. To attract Marcello's attention, Musetta bursts into her famous waltz song.

Marcello responds and Musetta, pretending that her shoe is pinching, dispatches Alcindoro to a cobbler. She joins in the revelry with Marcello and his friends. When they depart they leave a reminder for the hapless Alcindoro on his return — a huge bill! ACT III It is daybreak just inside a tollgate. Snow lies on the ground. Mimì emerges from the throng of workers. She is looking for Marcello at a nearby inn where he and Musetta have been living for the past month. Pale and agitated, she tells him of Rodolfo's jealousy which has made their life together impossible. Mimì hides as Rodolfo suddenly appears. He declares her to be unfaithful, but then confides to Marcello that Mimì is very ill and blames himself and his poverty for not being able to help her. Mimì's sudden coughing betrays her presence and the lovers sadly decide it is best that they part. Their parting duet is interrupted by the sounds of a fierce quarrel between Marcello and Musetta. Mimì and Rodolfo decide to stay together until spring returns. ACT IV The studio, months later.

Both pairs of lovers have now parted. Mimì and Musetta have found wealthy admirers. Rodolfo and Marcello feign indifference, but neither can forget the memory of his love. Schaunard and Colline arrive with meagre food and the four sit down to a mock 'banquet'. While they are acting the fool, Musetta rushes in with news that Mimì is desperately ill and has asked to be brought back to Rodolfo to die. Musetta explains that the Viscount has discarded Mimì and she has been living on the streets for weeks sinking further into poverty and desperation. The Bohemians rally to the cause. Musetta pawns her earrings and Colline his beloved coat to buy medicine for Mimì. Alone for a short time, Mimì and Rodolfo recall the past, reliving their short spell of happiness and their dreams together. Mimì, seized by a coughing fit, falls back, exhausted. When the others return, she weakly thanks them for their kindness and falls asleep. It is Schaunard who first notices that Mimì is dead. Rodolfo is the last to realise, by seeing the truth on his friends' faces.

The Music of La bohème Certain characteristics of Puccini’s style help us to better understand what makes La bohème the masterpiece that it is. For instance, Puccini allowed himself to be more open to the concept of symphonic development as we know it from the German masters of the symphony than other Italian composers of opera, Verdi included. This means that we encounter a greater sense of the operas being ‘through-composed’, a greater sense of continuity and ‘flow’ in the music rather like one would hear in a movement of a symphony. Hence, although certain Puccini arias and ensembles can be lifted out of context and performed free-standing, there is very little sense of ‘numbers’ or isolated pieces in his operas, as we have in the works of Verdi up to Otello and Falstaff.

But Puccini used something called 'thematic reminiscence', a favorite compositional technique of Italian operatic composers wherein a melody or a melodic fragment recurs at appropriate moments in the drama in order to create an effect of irony (the 'maledizione' theme in Rigoletto), nostalgia (“Amor, amor è palpito” in La traviata) or heightened emotion (the ‘kiss’ or bacio theme in Otello), borders on the Wagnerian leitmotif because of its widespread use in all of his operas and because these melodic ideas will often recur in varied form, disguised or ‘developed’. The ‘suicide’ motive in Butterfly is a wonderful example; think, too, of the Scarpia chords in Tosca, which permeate the entire texture of the opera. There are such melodies in La bohème, particularly the themes attached to the Bohemians and to Mimì. To call Puccini a brilliant orchestrator is perhaps an understatement: his manipulation of orchestral colors and techniques is unparalleled, certainly in the Italian repertoire. Only Verdi’s Falstaff looks forward to the brightness that Puccini seems to strive for (and gets!) in every one of his scores.

This tinta or overall orchestral color is unmistakable. We notice it immediately in the short orchestral introduction to La bohème Related to the tinta is Puccini’s deft ability to write ‘atmospheric’ music, music which is able to perfectly characterize the setting of a scene and comes as close as music can to the decorator’s art. Consider the change of mood from Mimì's aria in Act I to the duet, "O soave fanciulla" where the orchestra immediately envelopes the loving couple in a wash of romanticism; or the very 'snowy', chilly atmosphere at the opening of Act III describing dawn in Paris at the Barrière d'Enfer. One also notices after being swept away by Puccini’s melodies that the voice is often treated in a kind of parlando style, approximating speech (“spoken music”, according to the Harvard Dictionary of Music). A listener must take special notice of this throughout La bohème, where Puccini uses parlando to achieve a more ‘naturalistic’ quality to the conversations between the characters.

It has been pointed out by numerous scholars that Puccini has a penchant for the conjunct melody, a melody that moves stepwise or in small skips, something that his melodies have in common with folk music and children’s songs, making them immediately accessible to the ear as well as memorable. Likewise he is attracted, like his contemporary Tchaikovsky, to building melodic sequences on the scale. One of the most popular of his melodies from La bohème, Musetta’s waltz song “Quando me’n vo’”, is simply a very well manipulated descending E-major scale. It has been pointed out that this is, perhaps, Puccini’s tightest score and dramatically his most cogent opera by virtue of the control he exerted over his musical material. Compared to his earlier masterpiece, Manon Lescaut, this opera is a modicum of unity in every possible way. Look at the way the four acts are structured.

Unity is produced by virtue of the fact that both the first act and the fourth act open in the same location (Rodolfo’s garret), with the same two characters in mid-conversation (Rodolfo and Marcello) and with virtually the same music (the so-called ‘Bohemians’ theme; more about this later). Notice also that Acts I and IV are musically similar. Most of the themes introduced in Act I recur in Act IV, supporting the dramatic device of the two young lovers reminiscing over their first meeting as Mimì lies dying. Act II is the shortest of the four acts, introducing new musical material and two new characters (Musetta and Alcindoro). With the act’s quicker tempos it has the overall effect of a scherzo. Act III contains the heart of the opera, the tempos are somewhat slower and there is a more nostalgic, bittersweet atmosphere. Many commentators have noted that La bohème is built like a four movement symphony.

This may not have been due to any conscious effort on Puccini’s part, but in fact the above stated ‘symphonic’ and cyclical structure gives the opera dramatic and musical unity (something that Leoncavallo’s effort sorely missed). One approaches any attempt at analysis of La bohème with a certain amount of trepidation, as this is probably one of the most popular, talked about, over-analyzed operas in the standard repertoire. There isn’t much more to say about Puccini’s masterpiece that hasn’t already been said thousands of times, but great works can endure such analysis: every time we come back to this work we hear something new, something unique that we’ve not noticed before. Giacomo Puccini | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by Robert Cummings Giacomo Puccini was the most important composer of Italian opera after Verdi . He wrote in the verismo style, a counterpart to the movement of Realism in literature and a trend that favored subjects and characters from everyday life for opera. On his often commonplace settings Puccini lavished memorable melodies and lush orchestration.

It was around the turn of the twentieth century that he reached his artistic zenith, composing in succession his three most popular and effective operas, La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Young Giacomo took organ lessons early on from his uncle, Fortunato Magi , and later from Carlo Angeloni . At ten, he sang in local church choirs and by age 14 was freelancing as an organist at religious services. His first compositions were for organ, often incorporating operatic and folk elements. By age 18, under the spell of Verdi 's Aida, he decided he would study composition with a view to writing opera. At around this time, he composed his first large-scale work, a cantata, Preludio Sinfonico, for an 1877 competition. Other pieces came in the next few years, but none of significance. In 1880, Puccini entered the Milan Conservatory, where he studied for three years under Ponchielli and Bazzini. While there, he wrote his first opera, Le villi, which he once more entered in a competition.

Though he lost, Arrigo Boito and, more importantly, publisher Giulio Ricordi helped arrange a premiere in Milan on May 31, 1884. The work was enthusiastically received, and Puccini was on his way. Around this time the composer met Elvira Gemignani, wife of a merchant in Lucca. They carried on an illicit affair, and she gave birth to his son in 1886. When her husband died in 1904, the two were married. Puccini 's next opera, Edgar, was poorly received at its 1889 premiere. Subsequent revisions failed to rescue it from its encumbering libretto. His next effort, however, Manon Lescaut, was a sensational success at its 1893 Turin premiere. Subsequent performances in Italy and abroad bolstered the composer's growing reputation. Puccini 's next three operas confirmed his preeminence in Italian opera. La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904) were not immediately as successful as Manon Lescaut, but in time achieved greater acclaim.

By the middle of the twentieth century, they had become -- and remain today -- his most often performed and recorded works. Puccini suffered a creative dry spell for a time and was unable to finish another opera until the moderately successful La fanciulla del West (1910), which premiered in New York with Toscanini conducting and Caruso singing the role of Johnson. His sluggishness of inspiration owed much to charges by his wife he was having an affair with a servant girl, charges that drove the hapless, and as it turned out, innocent young girl to suicide in 1909. In 1913, Puccini accepted a lucrative commission from Vienna interests, which resulted in La rondine. Received warmly at its 1917 Monte Carlo premiere, it faded under the judgment it was the least of his operatic efforts. Puccini followed this disappointment with his trilogy of one-act operas, Il trittico -- comprised of Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi -- all premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1918. Only the latter work, a comedy, was well received.

While Puccini was working on his last opera, Turandot, he was diagnosed with throat cancer (1923). During radiation treatment in Brussels, he suffered a heart attack and died on November 29, 1924. Puccini: La Bohème: Puccini biography Return to Index Page Giacomo Puccini (1856-1924): Brief Biography Puccini was born in Lucca (Italy), a member of a large family of musicians going back to the early 18th century. His first job, at age 14, was as organist to the two churches of Lucca; but he quickly became more interested in opera (especially Verdi) than church music. He studied at the musical conservatory in Milan (1880-83), and there he came into contact with a group of Milanese artists, called the Scapigliati, who lived the Bohemian lifestyle. This group included the great librettist Arrigo Boito (himself a composer whose opera Mefistofele is still popular today).

Puccini wrote his first opera, Le villi (willi were vampire-like witches in East-European legend), a "dramatic legend," in 1884. It was successful, and was played at the La Scala opera house in Milan the next year. His second opera, Edgar, a "lyric drama" (1889), was a failure; his third, Manon Lescaut (1893), which story Massenet had set with international acclaim in 1884, was reasonably well received, and most importantly established him on the international operatic scene. (The work begins in Amiens (France), moves to Le Havre, and finishes up in the "Louisiana desert"!) La Bohème (1896) was at first less successful than Manon Lescaut, perhaps because its subject was too realistic, its tone in many places too light-hearted and somewhat sentimental, and was thus compared unfavorably by the critics (see below) to the Romantic-tragic character of Manon. However, it came to be recognized as the masterpiece history now judges it to be.

After producing Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904) to enormous acclaim, Puccini was embroiled in a domestic crisis and scandalous court case in 1909. Puccini's jealous wife accused him of having had an intimate affair with his servant girl, Doria, who in 1909 committed suicide. From the autopsy evidence, Doria and Puccini were exonerated, but the experience took its toll on the very sensitive composer. In 1907, he composed The Girl of the Golden West, a very different sort of opera, set in California during the gold rush era, which was successfully premiered at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1910. Soon after this, Puccini began to be criticized by a new generation of Italian composers for his "bourgeois mentality, lack of ideals, and pure commercialism" (New Grove) -- charges which in some quarters still haunt him at the present day.

Joseph Kerman, for example, in his book Opera as Drama (1956), spoke of Tosca as "that shabby little shocker." His final opera, the lavish, exotic, fairy-tale Turandot, was unfinished at his death in 1924, but was completed and premiered in 1926, and remains one of his most admired works. Giacomo Puccini Profile, Classical Music Composer December 22, 1858 - Lucca, Italy Died: November 29, 1924 - Brussels, Belgium Puccini Quick Facts: Puccini's operas Tosca, La Boheme, Turandot, and Madame Butterfly are some of the most often performed operas in the world and are regularly included in opera companies' repertoire. Puccini was born into a musical dynasty that covered nearly two centuries. Puccini wrote his first opera in 1884, called "Le villi;" an eastern European legend of vampiric witches. Puccini died before completing his most famous opera, Turandot. Franco Alfani completed the opera by composing the final duet.

Puccini's most famous aria, bar none, is " Nessun Dorma " from the opera, Turandot, largely in part to Pavarotti's performances . Family Background and Childhood: As I mentioned earlier, Puccini was born into a musical dynasty. His father, Domenico Puccini, was an Italian composer who wrote several piano sonatas and concertos. Domenico died when Puccini was just five years old. continue reading below our video 5 Urban Myths That Rule the Ages Puccini's family, now without income, was aided by the city of Lucca, and his father's position as the cathedral organist was held open for Puccini once he became of age. Puccini studied music with several of his fathers pupils, however, he never took the church job that was held for him. Instead, after seeing an eye-opening performance of Verdi's Aida, Puccini dedicated his life and career to opera. Young Adult Life: Puccini enrolled at Milan Conservatory in 1880. He studied with Antonio Bazzini, a well-known violinist and composer, and Amilcare Ponchielli, who composed the opera La gioconda .

That same year, Puccini wrote his first liturgical piece, Messa, a mass ordinary that foreshadowed his upcoming operatic compositions. In 1882, Puccini entered a contest and began composing his first opera, Le Villi. After the piece was finished and performed in 1884, he did not win the contest. His second opera, Edgar, fell flat and was not well-received. For his later operas, Puccini was extremely picky about his librettists. Mid Adult Life and Rise to Fame: When Puccini wrote his second opera, he was commissioned by Giulio Ricordi (a highly successful publisher). Though the opera was a disaster due to the poor libretto , Ricordi stayed by Puccini's side. After finally finding suitable librettists (Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa), Puccini composed Manon Lescaut in 1893. Met with huge success, his third opera opened the door to great wealth and fame.

The next three operas he composed have easily become the world's most beloved and performed: La Boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madame Butterfly (1904). These operas earned Puccini a substantial amount of wealth and fame. Puccini's Scandalous Marriage: After his mother died, Puccini skipped town with his lover, Elvira Gemignani, who was married to another man, and moved to Milan in 1891. Though their relationship was frowned upon, the two were quite passionate about their love and even had a baby boy, named Antonio. In 1904, they finally married after Elvira's husband passed away. After Puccini's success and rise to fame, the public (much like today) became interested in his private life. It was clear that Elvira was a jealous woman. Convinced the house maid had an affair with Puccini, Elvira relentlessly questioned her to the point she finally committed suicide. Late Adult Life and Death: Able to spend his money, Puccini had a penchant for fine cigars and fast cars. He nearly killed himself after a severe accident.

He also built a villa "Villa Museo Puccini" which is now owned by his granddaughter. Puccini did not write music quite as frequently. He wrote only four operas between 1904 to 1924, likely due to several major events. The family of the poor maid who Elvira bullied to death, successfully sued Elvira, which caused Puccini to pay for damages. His friend and publisher, Recordi, died in 1912. In 1924, Puccini nearly finished with Turandot died after surgery to remove his throat cancer.

Puccini's Operas: Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924) La Boheme Luba Orgonasova, Jonathan Welch, Carmen Gonzales, Fabio Previati, Boaz Senator, Ivan Urbas, Richard Novák, Jirí Sulzenko, Ladislav Hallon, Stanislav Benacka ,Bratislava Children's Choir / Slovak Philharmonic Chorus / Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Will Humburg Introduction Many music lovers will, I believe, admit that they learned to love opera by listening to Puccini. Some of us might move away from him, even scorn him. Then with luck, we come back, listen with fresh ears and appreciate his strengths all the more - and we grow to love him all over again. A recent biographer of Puccini astutely remarked: "The ability to write a good tune may be no guarantee of greatness.

But the ability to write a good tune and then to place it seemingly effortlessly in the context of a work that is beautifully crafted, unerringly paced and precisely coloured is a token of genius that should never be underestimated." A distinguished critic once observed that opera houses need Puccini the way farms need dung. The quip was less insulting than it sounded for without La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly as a permanent part of their repertoire, most opera companies would be in penury. These works are the fertilisers that enable the music of composers, less popular than Puccini, to survive today's financial rigours. La Bohème, composed between 1893 and 1895, was the first of this trio of Puccini's popular, middle-period operas. It followed on from the composer's Manon Lescaut (1889-92) and marks a significant advance in Puccini's development.

As Conrad Wilson comments in his Puccini biography ( Phaidon 20th Century Composers series ), "The gusto, the perfection of detail, the instinctive grasp of timing, and the utter assurance of La Bohème are enough to make Manon Lescaut, for all its qualities, seem in comparison somewhat stiff and heavy Wagnerian longeurs are conspicuously absent. Indeed, La Bohème is a work so racy that it must be one of the few operas ever written that lasts not so very much longer in performance than in the spoken reading of its libretto." The insistence of some opera houses (anxious to promote their catering) on three intervals between each of Bohème's four acts can make the opera seem long though; and its cohesion and sense of balance is thus jeopardised. (Once, Deutsche Oper, Berlin staged it in a single act giving a very different impression of the work's running time!) Before Puccini set to work on La Bohème, there was a violent ending of his friendship with his fellow composer Ruggero Leoncavallo who had been planning to write a version of La Bohème himself.

(Leoncavallo actually did complete his opera but it is totally overshadowed by the Puccini composition, which was completed first). La Bohème is based on Henri Murger's Parisian Scènes de la vie de bohème in which the character of Rodolfo is very different. Murger's original was described as being bald and charmless with holes in his sleeves and a huge bushy many-coloured beard. Puccini merely extracted what he needed, transformed Murger's characters to suit his own ends and, in so doing, made Mimi the central character (another of Puccini's doomed heroines) not the vain and feckless Rodolfo. "Puccini's ability to identify with his heroines was a major feature - if not the major feature - of all his operas It also, in La Bohème, inspired him to produce the most perfectly structured of all his operas, the one in which choice of subject, choice of librettists, and the musical approach all merged to create a masterpiece. The five librettists of Manon Lescaut were reduced to the two who mattered for La Bohème - Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica.

Illica was to write the scenario and Giacosa was to versify it but they both had to contend with Puccini's volatile temperament and his continual interference and constant text and structural changes. Giacosa protested that one scene had had to be rewritten a hundred times and threatened to resign. A whole act was sacrificed because Puccini thought, quite rightly, that it added nothing significant to, and even lessened the impact of the drama and interrupted its flow. And so La Bohème took three years to complete, "compared with the three weeks a Mozart might have needed for it". La Bohème is perfectly balanced; Acts I and II mirror-image Acts III and IV. Act I begins with Rodolfo and Marcello bantering in their studio before Schaunard and Colline arrive and concludes with the beginnings of the love affair between Mimi and Rodolfo. Act IV opens with the same two artists in the same studio before the entrance of Colline and Schaunard (again bringing in food) and concludes with the end of Mimi and Rodolfo's love as the poor girl dies.

Act II begins with the crowds in front of the Café Momus and concentrates on Mimi's growing passion for Rodolfo (but hints at the latter's jealous disposition) and introduces Musetta who appears with her wealthy old protector and successfully provokes Marcello's jealousy so that he takes her back. Act III also begins outside (in front of one of the gates to Paris and near the inn where Marcello is painting) with a busy-ish crowd scene. It covers the rift in the relationship between Mimi and Rodolfo and a parallel rift between Marcello and Musetta. Even little details are mirrored. In Act I Schaunard explains that his "windfall" comes from a wealthy Englishman who had wanted a musician to play to his dying parrot. In Act IV when the artists are indulging in horse-play, Rodolfo asks of Marcello, "Which do you choose, Baron, salmon or trout?" to which, Marcello replies, "Well, Duke, how about some parrot-tongue?" As Wilson says, " The four young men and two women, around whom the plot revolves, seem the very stuff of nineteenth century bohemian life.

Rodolfo and Mimi fall in and out of love, as do Marcello and Musetta, while Colline and Schaunard, without amorous entanglements, are content to assist in this little comedy of life. In the end Mimi dies. The others grieve. But Rodolfo, who finally is too self-absorbed to notice the actual moment of Mimi's death will soon find somebody else - or so his noisy ostentatious despair seems to imply as the curtain falls. The four men - poet, painter, philosopher, musician - are deftly differentiated. Mimi's sweetness finds its opposite in Musetta's brashness. [Yet notice how Puccini broadens out Musetta's character in Act IV when she is the first to offer to fetch help when Mimi lies dying and offers Mimi the warmth of her muff and even tells Mimi it was Rodolfo who had bought it for her] "Each scene, whether private or public, is a Parisian tableau precisely evoked by Puccini's music and by the conspicuous development, in this work, of his ability to express dramatic emotion in terms of memorable melody, and to respond instantaneously to every change of mood or situation.

As one commentator put it: 'When he composed, he knew exactly what he wanted; there was in him an inexorable cine-chronometer that followed all the action down to the smallest detail.' In Bohème the music is the action, and the action is the music, in a manner new to opera. That is what makes the vividly exact musical depiction of every incident in Act II unique in operatic history. Here is music in which time is not frozen in the manner it usually has to be in opera. Even the orchestral part, like the singing, is made to sound conversational in a fresh way, without sacrificing the beauty of either instrumental or vocal tone. Nobody - except Puccini himself at one point in Act III of Manon Lescaut - had done anything quite like it before in Italian opera, and nobody would do it so successfully again." Puccini's graphic music and brilliant orchestration for Bohème is noticeable throughout the opera.

I would mention just one example - right at the beginning of the opera when Rodolfo and Marcello are shivering in their studio - you can feel the chill in the air with them; and when Rodolfo burns his manuscript you can hear the fire take hold, flare and crackle, and ultimately die down and extinguish. In conclusion of this section, I would quote Wilson once again as he reminds us: " Nowhere else did Puccini give one of his operas such a recognisably and consistently symphonic shape. Leonard Bernstein had good reason to select Act III of La Bohème as his favourite example of 'what music does to expand mere drama into opera'. Using it as the basis of a television lecture, he showed how successfully Puccini expanded the emotion of the words, how the change of one single note in a repeated phrase could heighten the drama, and how two, three or four characters singing simultaneously could create a network of emotions that was in itself a new kind of emotional experience - and one of a sort that only great opera can achieve. Background Notes on the Beecham and Chailly Recordings The classic Beecham recording of La Bohème was something of a miracle.

It was organised at the very last minute when Beecham's manager, Andrew Schulhof, realised that Victoria de los Angeles, Jussi Björling and Beecham himself would all be in New York in the spring of 1956 and persuaded EMI and its then-associate American company RCA to record the opera. Edward Greenfield, in writing the notes for this set recalled, "The sessions began on March 16 and 17 and were completed in an intensive rush of activity between March 30 and April 6 with only one day (April 4) left free of sessions. Legend has it that Victoria de los Angeles stopped off on her way to the airport, to make her final contribution to a recording that tingles with life and warmth from beginning to end." Greenfield goes on to remind us that Beecham had met Puccini and had had first hand experience of the volatile composer's interference in the production of his own operas. Beecham never liked Puccini too well.

Puccini had brushed Beecham aside when in 1904 the young conductor first met him after an approach through Illica, to discuss Beecham's own opera on the subject of Christopher Marlow. Then, in 1920, when Beecham was established, he clashed again with Puccini over the set for a Covent Garden performance of Suor Angelica. Beecham recalled that in many places in La Bohème, the performing directions were not explicit enough or contradictory. As Beecham himself commented in the context of this recording, 'In almost every instance, Puccini confirmed my impression, gathered through many performances of Bohème, that something was lacking in one respect here, or incomplete there.

So what I have undertaken to do in this recording represents as Puccini indicated in my score - his views of his earlier work not many years before he died.' Greenfield adds, "What Beecham did not mention there - though one has to assume that it equally reflects his discussions with the composer - is that his speeds are almost always markedly slower than those of Toscanini, who at that time, was by far the greatest Italian conductor of the day and the conductor of Bohème at its Turin premiere in 1896, tended to be counted authoritative in his views. Over the years, since Beecham made this recording, not long after Toscanini had made his at a live concert performance, also in New York, the views of Beecham on tempi in this opera are the ones that have tended to prevail and understandably so. The music itself blossoms the more. We pass now from the oldest recording in this survey to the most recent - that of Riccardo Chailly who uses the new critical edition of La Bohème produced by Francesco Degrada in 1988.

In a fascinating interview with the conductor, reproduced in the set's booklet, Chailly reveals that Degrada's edition contains no less than 181 amendments to the published score - 42 in the first act, 52 in the second, 39 in the third and 48 in the fourth - all concerned with regularising all the vagueness and ill judged practices that had accumulated from performances over the years. Only three of these, however, affect the actual notes in the score, the most striking of them being the addition of a rising flute line set against the harp notes just after Rodolfo begins "Che gelida manina". As Chailly comments, "But the notes themselves, of course, cannot convey everything. The new edition contains a wealth of detail regarding tempi, dynamics accents and phrasing " One of the most striking points Chailly makes seems to contradict Beecham when it is claimed that - "Puccini objected strongly when anything was performed too slowly. Ricci (a vocal coach who worked for some years with Puccini on the rehearsal and staging of his operas) remembers him at rehearsals calling out to the conductor "Maestro!

If you fall asleep, we'll all fall asleep!" and "Lively, lively, maestro! Don't slow down too much !" Puccini liked to have a sense of tempos pressing ahead. The first part of the first act, like the first part of the fourth, has to move with a youthful freshness without any sentimental lingering." Musetta's waltz-song should be brisk and not sentimentalised "if it sounds like something from an operetta, it's the performance that is to blame" This interview/article makes absorbing reading and I recommend that it is not passed over when this set is purchased. The Reviews The opera is set in the Latin Quarter of Paris, commencing on Christmas Eve, 1830 - revolution had occurred in the City in the July of that year. Official provision against hunger and destitution had been inadequate throughout the 1820s. Act I - the artists' studio. The opera opens with poet, Rodolfo and painter Marcello shivering in the intense cold before the poet decides to sacrifice a manuscript to the stove.

Beecham and Karajan's evocation of the chill and the warming fire are vivid with the former just ahead (it is amazing to discover the Beecham recording is in mono for it is so involving and sounds so realistic). Colline (the philosopher) joins them as the fire goes out but high spirits ensue when the musician, and fourth member of their group, Schaunard appears laden with food. Just as he suggests they eat out, their landlord, Benoit, appears demanding the rent. He is plied with drink, made to look a fool and thrown out. Fernando Coreno (bass) on the Beecham set (doubling as Alcindoro, Musetta's elderly beau, as customary) is excellent as the grasping lascivious landlord, so too is Alfredo Mariotti on the Chailly set [Interestingly, Mariotti has not only sung La Bohème under several very famous conductors directly linked to Puccini, but he actually studied under Luigi Ricci (see above in the note on this recording).] The bohemians leave for dinner, all except Rodolfo who decides to remain behind to finish some writing. A timid knock on the door interrupts him.

It is Mimi who, almost fainting with cold and hunger, wants a candle. As she leaves, her candle blows out and she loses her key. Rodolfo helps her to look for it in the darkness. Their hands touch There follows the famous arias and duet as they introduce each other and fall in love. Jussi Björling makes a fine virile Rodolfo. What superb artistry and voice, pleasing youthful timbre, perfect control and natural expressiveness. Pavarotti, in great form, delivers all one would expect of him. He might, however, be thought overly dramatic for some tastes. As good as Roberto Alagna is in the newer recordings - especially, and understandably, with his wife Angela Gheorghiu - he is overshadowed by these two giants. Victoria de los Angeles's Mimi is simply ravishing. Her phrasing and sense of line is immaculate and how she can tug at the heart strings! How the New York critic could have dismissed her Mimi as dispassionate and sexless is beyond my comprehension. Mirella Freni is also very impressive, subtle yet passionate with a silken vocal line and her duet with Pavarotti is shattering.

Pappano's Mimi, Leontina Vaduva, is not so beguiling, her diction woolly and the curve of her vocal line not so pleasing. Gheorghiu impresses more and she and Alagna deliver another thrilling climactic duet. Both Beecham and Karajan's readings are slower than both Pappano and Chailly. I have to say I prefer Beecham's approach; and Karajan's keen sense of theatre always thrills. The sound on the Pappano recording is a bit recessed, so the playing volume needs to be compensated accordingly. All the conductors provide warm and sympathetic accompaniments for the singers with Beecham and Chailly adding little extra felicities and Karajan's Berlin orchestra adding that bit more intensity and passion, and their playing is simply glorious. Act II - a little later outside Café Momus The early part of this act, brimming with activity and colour with the crowds, the street vendors, urchins, students and toy seller belongs to Karajan who again demonstrates an acute sense of theatre. Karajan's children's chorus is outstanding and the Berlin strings give opulent support to the growing affection between Rodolfo and Mimi.

As Mimi and the bohemians sit outside the Café Momus, Musetta appears on the arm of her elderly admirer Alcindoro. She immediately sets out to make her former lover, Marcello jealous by singing her famous waltz-song. Of all the Musettas, I favour Elizabeth Harwood on Karajan's recording. Harwood, I felt, was often undervalued, and in this role she is excellent - saucy and coquettish with Karajan accompanying superbly; and she is really waspish in her subsequent vitriolic exchanges with the irate Marcello (a staunch Rolando Panera on this recording). The quartet with Rodolfo and Mimi expressing love (but Rodolfo beginning to show his jealousy) and the bitter exchanges between Marcello and Musetta is very successful and vivid on the Beecham and Chailly recordings. Karajan's passing military tattoo is brilliant theatre; and the, act of course, ends with the two sets of lovers together - but for how long? Act III At the Barrière d'Enfer, one of the toll gates of Paris, on an early morning in February.

There is a tavern on the left where Marcello's signboard is hung. Snow lies on the ground. People wait to be admitted to the City, while customs officials doze around a brazier. Beecham captures this scene brilliantly. The chill evoked by the RCA Victor Orchestra is palpable, so too is the contrasting warmth from the brazier. Sounds of hilarity come from the tavern as Mimi enters weak and coughing. Marcello comes out of the tavern and sees her and asks her if she will join them. But Mimi tells him of Rodolfo's unreasoning jealousy and that she fears that they must part. Rodolfo emerges from the tavern as Mimi hides behind a tree. He first complains to Marcello about Mimi's being something of a coquette but then reveals the truth - his fear that she is dying. A cough gives Mimi away and she and Rodolfo agree to part but then feel it is better to stay together through the hard winter and then, perhaps, part in the Spring. As they draw closer, Marcello who had been experiencing better relations with Musetta now thinks she is up to her old tricks again flirting in the inn and so they fall out again.

This dramatic switch occurs in the quartet that so impressed Leonard Bernstein (see the end paragraph of the opening discussion of this opera). Robert Merrill's Marcello on the Beecham set is strong and understanding in his exchanges with Mimi and vituperative with Musetta - the sparks really fly. Simon Keenlyside as Marcello on the Chailly set and Thomas Hampson impress too (the dependable Hampson is consistently good) on the Pappano recording. Victoria de los Angeles brings a lump to the throat with her heart-rending goodbye to Rodolfo and Björling is very natural and convincing in his expressions of jealousy, remorse, concern and love. Pappano delivers a warmly sympathetic third act accompaniment and again the exchanges between Rodolfo and Mimi are natural and sympathetic. The quartet goes to Beecham and Chailly; and, at this point, I must praise the singing of a nicely youthful-sounding Elisabetta Scano as Musetta. Act IV the bohemian's studio, that Spring Marcello and Rodolfo are now separated from Musetta and Mimi. They try to work but memories of their girls keep intruding.

Colline and Schaunard enter with a meagre meal which is eaten with mock solemnity and some horse-play follows. Suddenly Musetta appears at the door. She tells them Mimi is outside but is too weak to climb the stairs. Rodolfo rushes down to help her while the others prepare a bed for her. Musetta gives Marcello her earrings to buy medicine and cover the cost of a doctor. She then decides to go with Marcello to buy a muff for Mimi. Colline chooses to help by pawning his overcoat and he leaves with Schaunard. Mimi and Rodolfo keft alone reminisce over their romance and we learn that Mimi was quite aware of Rodolfo's amorous tactics when they first met. The others return and as Mimi drifts off into her final sleep Musetta kneels and prays for her. Rodolfo slowly realises from the atmosphere in the room what the others had already understood that Mimi is dead. The curtain falls on his cry of anguish. Beecham's and Karajan's readings of the early part of the act are high-spirited; and their lovers' final duets are most moving.

Nicolai Ghiaurov on the Karajan set is particularly appealing as the otherwise stoical Colline as he decides to bid farewell to his treasured overcoat. Pappano's artists shine in this final act too. There is delicacy and subtlety of shading in the opening exchanges between Marcello (Hampson is very good here) and Rodolfo as they reminisce about their estranged loves at the beginning of the act. Pappano also adds little telling touches like the sinister turns of phrase when Colline explains that he is summoned by the king (Louis Phillipe) to the ministry and some plot might be afoot. Chailly's recording is distinguished by a most moving final duet by Gheorghiu and Alagna. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's Colline impresses too. The Naxos Budget Version Naxos prove once again that you don't need to have big star names to deliver fine performances. Under Humburg's direction, the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra is magnificent; wonderfully expressive, polished, refined with immaculate phrasing and nicely judged rubato.

Carmen Gonzales is a really coquettish Musetta equalling Elizabeth Harwood on the Karajan set in appeal. Her Marcello (Fabio Previati) is equally impressive; volatile and articulate. While Jonathan Welch as Rodolfo does not have such an appealing timbre as Pavarotti or Björling (he has a slight tremolo and is a trifle nasally), he is, nevertheless, ardent and passionate enough; and his Act III and IV duets with Orgonasova are heart-rending. Luba Orgonasova cannot really compete with the divas of the full price versions either. Like Welch, her timbre is not so appealing - sometimes sounding suitably girlish but at other points in her register, she seems a little, dare I say it, matronly, and certainly too full-toned to sound consumptive. Yet she sings confidently and is sensitive to all the emotional shades of her role. Unsurprisingly, for a super-budget release the documentation is not so full, the libretto comes in Italian only. All in all, and taking the low price into consideration, I unhesitatingly recommend this set as alternative listening to any of the full priced recordings reviewed above.

Conclusion It was a fascinating experience listening to these four performances one after another, act by act. After the older two recordings, of Beecham and Karajan, the newer two seemed to be something of a disappointment yet there is much to admire in both of them particularly Chailly's recording. I rank Beecham and Karajan in joint first place and say that I would favour each depending on my mood. If I wanted a more natural, slightly more restrained yet moving reading I would go for Beecham - if I needed more passion and a really sumptuous and theatrical account then I would have to plump for Karajan. If I was sent to a desert island and told I could only have one recording, then it would have to be Beecham. Of the two newer recordings, my money goes on the Chailly version. I will conclude by quoting, once again from Conrad Wilson, When Puccini completed La Bohème in his study at midnight on 10 December 1895, three years after he had begun it, he burst into tears, so great was his own emotion. Sentimental though it may seem, it was the death of Mimi that did it to him.

The man who has often been accused of 'manipulating' his audience clearly found it easy to manipulate his own emotions, to the extent that, on finishing Bohème, he admitted that he had - 'had to get up and, standing in the middle of the study, alone in the silence of the night, I began to weep like a child. It was as though I had seen my own child die.'" Reviewer Ian Lace Recommended reading, the book quoted in this article: Giacomo Puccini by Conrad Wilson Phaidon Press 240 pages. Purchase Reviewer

Question: Who composed the opera La Boheme?
Answer: PUCCINI