Romantic grand opera begins and ends with Puccini’s “La Bohème.”
It’s the most performed work by the Metropolitan Opera. And if you are lucky, it is the first opera you ever saw.
Opera lovers all over the world know and care about Mimi and Rodolfo. He is the quintessential starving artist; she is the doomed frail flower. Rodolfo the aspiring poet – Mimi the expiring, tubercular embroiderer.
“Scénes de la vie bohème” started out as a series of fictional pieces by Henri Murger in 1848. He wrote about a group of friends who shared an attic apartment in the Latin Quarter of the Parisian Left Bank. A year later, an equally young and aspiring playwright, Théodore Barriére, talked Murger into co-writing a play based on one of the stories. It, too, was successful; so in 1851, Murger linked his stories and published a novel romanticizing the starving artist who lives for art and is confounded by love.
Forty-five years later, Giacomo Puccini seized on the work as the basis for a new opera.
On February 1, 1896, “La Bohème” opened in Turin, conducted by a very young Arturo Toscanini. Not to confuse the reader, but the opera became so popular so quickly and enduringly, that in 1946, an older and far more famous Toscanini conducted one of several 50th anniversary performances in New York City.
What makes “La Bohème” so beloved? The short answer is the story and the music.
The opera is set in 1830 and begins with a light-hearted scene between two of the four friends who share a Parisian garret. Rodolfo and his painter friend, Marcello, are at work when Schaunard and Colline arrive with good news, a bit of a windfall. They immediately plan to celebrate and spend it all at their favorite hangout, Café Momus. As they leave, a chance encounter brings Rodolfo and Mimi together. Love begins to weave its fateful course.
Acts I and IV stay close to Murger’s original narrative, but Acts II and II were largely invented by Puccini’s librettists: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. They agreed the basic love story needed complications, mostly a secondary love match between Musetta and Marcello and a falling out between the central lovers.
When “La Bohème” premiered, it was a sensation due mostly to its subject matter: struggling artists, poverty and free love. Productions opened in the United Kingdom, Germany, Argentina and the United States – all before the turn of the century. Movies and Broadway musicals based on “La Bohème” have achieved enormous popularity, including “Moulin Rouge” and “Rent.”
As for the opera, Puccini and company didn’t waste a moment telling the story. Mimi (the Romanian soprano Anita Hartig) and Rodolfo (the engaging tenor Vittorio Grigolo) fall in love quickly. The rest of the opera spins out their tragic love affair, contrasting it with the hot energy generated by Marcello (Massimo Cavalletti) and Musetta (Susanna Phillips).
Traditionalists rejoice. The MET is remounting the Franco Zeffirelli production featuring the famous Italian film director’s period costumes and sets. Look for Act II’s Parisian street scene and the vivacious allure of Café Momus.
As thoroughly as you know the story, the ending is so musically and dramatically perfect that opera fans are known to weep every time they attend a performance.
jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic.
If you go
The MET: Live in HD presents Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohéme,,” at 11 a.m. Saturday, in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union. Based on Henri Murger’s novel “Scénes de la vie de bohéme,” featuring Anita Hartig as Mimi, Susanna Phillips as Musetta and Vittorio Grigolo as Rodolfo in the Franco Zeffirelli production, conducted by Stefano Ranzani. Tickets: $23 general, $21 seniors, students and MET members, available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657 or at the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue or at the door. Note: Surcharges may apply. Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
