La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini takes place mostly in the winter, but the score is so bursting with vitality and effervescence that it speaks longingly of spring. On the surface, the opera appears to be romanticizing what is basically a rather tawdry story. Young people shacking up in studio apartments, while it may now be the norm, in 1896 was regarded as "bohemian," on the fringe of society. But because La Bohème is great art, its meaning and appeal can relate as much to the here and now as ever it did to the past.The characters in La Bohème are gifted, impulsive, and poor. They live for the moment, for love and for art, with marriage and commitment as an afterthought, if thought of at all. Their lackadaisical lifestyle degenerates into bickering, as the men are unable to take care of the women they love. The women turn to the arms of wealthy lovers for sustenance, losing honor as well as true romance. Sacrifices are made, and prayers are offered, but too late to save the relationships, or the life of the heroine.
According to this website:
Puccini’s La Boheme is a story of young love set in the bohemian culture of 1830s Paris. The bittersweet tragedy centers around an optimistic group of friends surviving on limited means. Rodolfo, a poet, shares a garret with his artist friend. Mimi is a seamstress living in a neighboring apartment. Mimi and Rodolfo meet and fall instantly, madly, in love. But the diva is already desperately ill with tuberculosis and not long for the world.
The libretto, by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, is based on Henri Murger’s novel Scènes de la vie de Bohème and was the inspiration for the Broadway musical Rent.
Puccini injected the joie de vivre of his student days into the vibrant score, as well as his searing insight into the human passions which, when allowed to spiral out of control, produce nothing but unmitigated tragedy. As one article says:
As for Puccini, La Bohème portrayed many of his own personal experiences.When he was in his twenties and attending the conservatory in Milan, he was like the bohemians in his opera story - a starving young artist. Pietro Mascagni, who later composed Cavalleria Rusticana and L'amico Fritz, was Puccini’s roommate. They lived in a garret where they were forbidden to cook, pooled their pennies to buy necessities, and dodged their creditors. And like Colline in the fourth act of the opera, Puccini once pawned his coat for money - but not for such a noble cause – he was taking a young ballerina out on the town!
The rapture and hope of young love are captured in the famous duet O soave fanciulla and in the provocative "Musetta's Waltz," Quando me n’vò. The final scene is profoundly moving and one cannot help feeling sorry for the misguided but good-hearted characters, even while being annoyed at them for their irresponsible and loose behavior. Share
19 comments:
Hello,
I love La Boheme! What a great story.
~ Gabriela ~
It is a great story. So truthful.
I love the music but really didn't know the story, thank you for this!
You are welcome, paris! I love your blog!
It seems to me that honor is not a very salient issue in La Bohème at all. The two women are already "fallen" before we meet them; at least Musetta is. They are grisettes, poor seamstresses of the 1830s who lived apart from their families in the capitol, and with whom artists and university students commonly had romantic liaisons. If you haven't read the Mürger stories, you should -- they are wonderful!
The poignancy of the Act III quartet comes from the fact that Rodolfo wants to leave Mimì -- so that she will be able to find a rich man who can pay for the medical care she desperately needs. His hope is that she will live rather than die, but he is too poor to ensure a good outcome for her. He makes that sacrifice for love. In the end, in fact, all the friends make sacrifices for love -- Musetta sells her earrings, Colline his overcoat (he sings the wonderful aria "Vecchia zimara" about it). The only ones who bicker are Marcello and Musetta, but it's clear that that has been the tenor of their relationship before the beginning of the opera.
I have never, ever found the characters in La Bohème annoying! They are young and idealistic and in love. They're also living at a time of social upheaval in France and unmoored from family and church, making their own society anew. They do immoral things, yes, as do so many characters in opera; the main difference is that, unlike most characters in opera, they are ordinary people -- not kings, queens, heroes, etc. -- who make bad choices with good intentions and who suffer tragedy in the small scope of their lives. This is what makes them so sympathetic to us, and the story so heartbreaking.
Puccini was one of the first composers, in fact, to set operas about the lives of ordinary people - the narrative and compositional style called "verismo," or realism. Puccini also had some very tragic circumstances in his own life, and was not exactly the most sexually moral man.
If you want to find out what happens to Rodolfo and Marcello in the end, read Mürger!
Well said. Thanks for the information which will be helpful to those who have not read the stories.
What I find annoying is that the men the girls love are unable to find work so that they can get married. I know, it was part of the Bohemian scene, but as for myself, having seen many modern renditions of similar situations am filled with as much pity as I am with frustration for the characters and their imprudent decisions.
Yes, they are lovable and fun and I felt the same way you did when I was younger. It is still one of my favorite operas. I wouldn't have written about it if I didn't love it. ;-)
Well, they all _do_ work after a fashion, don't they? Colline tutors; Schaunard has the infamous job with the parrot, payment for which provides the Christmas Eve repast; Marcello, in Act III, is painting signs at he toll-gate tavern; and Rodolfo, when we meet him, is writing a review for a newspaper. Perhaps their prospects for well-paid work are rather dim, but they do work. And so do the girls. Mimì and her flowers . . . and Musetta gives singing lessons, as Marcello tells Rodolfo in Act III.
Yes, Pentimento, they are all working but not enough to get married on. Or else they would have gotten married, they were certainly devoted enough. Because I am a practicing Catholic I believe people should not live together without being married. There are other options; there were even other options back then. I guess I just know of too many babies born out of wedlock to modern bohemian types, and even of abortions, the ultimate tragedy.
I don't think it's at all certain that the "Bohemians" of Mürger's stories and Puccini's opera would have gotten married. They are Bohemians, after all, not just because of their poverty and their artistic ambitions, but because of their loose sexual mores. They are living out a social and sexual experiment that foreshadows the ones of our own time, with equally tragic consequences.
I agree, Pentimento, and that is one of the many factors, I think, which give La Boheme so much power, even today, because while it is about the past it is also about the present, offering some timeless truths.
Thank you for all of your comments, I always enjoy reading your insights! I would love to read a comparison of the novel with the opera, if you know of anything or better yet, have written anything yourself.
I encourage everyone to visit Pentimento's fascinating blog, on my sidebar and called "Pentimento" for thoughtful discussions about life and music. Thanks!
I agree with you, Elena Maria - Bohème is one of those universal stories, and the truths it offers are not only timeless, but also profoundly painful. As many times as I've heard and seen this opera, I can't hear Rodolfo's final cry of "Mimì!" without breaking down, and it's said that Puccini himself wept as he wrote it.
There's a lot of stuff out there (none of it by me!) about the transformation of Mürger's "Scènes de la vie de bohème" into Puccini's opera. A good resource is The Puccini Companion by William Weaver. Mürger's novel, translated into English as The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter, is absolutely one of my favorite books of all time.
And thank you very much for your kind words about my blog! :)
Oh, I start crying a lot sooner than that! I cry at the first, utterly exquisite duet of Mimi and Rudolfo, because I know how it is all going to end.... But I always cry at the beginning of operas that I really love. And movies, too.
Thank you for the recommendation! I could google around all night but it is better to have a recommendation from someone who really knows.
For me, the real stab in the heart is the Act III quartet. It is so heartbreaking when they say "Ci lasceremo alla stagion dei fior'" (we'll part in the springtime). I'm crying just thinking about it.
Also, it's a fantastic piece of music. Puccini starts to really use verisimillitude here, especially at the opening, with the songs, bells, and cries of the workers and vendors entering the gates of Paris.
My graduate school mentor, Allan Atlas, wrote a short article in a scholarly journal called Acta musicologica that you might like: the article is called "Pacing and Proportion in the Act I Love Duet of Puccini's La Boheme," and is in vol. 85 (2003).
Have you seen the Baz Luhrmann production for the Australian National Opera that went to Broadway a few years ago? It's really wonderful.
I cry just thinking of "O soave fianculla." I'll look for the article you recommend. I think I only saw La Boheme live once at the Lyric in Baltimore. I had a recording with Mirella Freni I used to listen to everyday during grad school, along with La Rondine and Turandot. It drove the neighbors crazy.
That recording is AWESOME - Pavarotti as Rodolfo, von Karajan conducting, right? Just awesome.
The one I listen to now is Sir Thomas Beecham conducting, with Victoria de los Angeles and Jüssi Bjoerling. Also just incredible.
That's exactly the one. I can't play it now; it's a record album.
I have Carmen with Victoria de los Angeles. Pure magnificence. Another old album I can no longer play.
They're on CD too - time to upgrade!
Yes, I have Turandot (Caballe, Freni, Carreras) and La Rondine (Anna Moffo)on CD now but I am still deprived of La Boheme... and my beloved Tosca (Pavarotti and Freni)!
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