Michelangelo Mazza and Tahu Matheson conduct. Julie Lea Goodwin and Esther Song sing the iconically blonde Musetta, while Haotian Qi croons as her Marcello. Iván Ayón Rivas and Atalla Ayan sing as the poet, Rodolfo. Stellar sopranos Karah Son, Danita Weatherstone and Rebecca Gulinello sing the role of Mimì.

This touching tale is set among the fishnets and fairy lights of 1930s Berlin. The music soars with the ecstasy of love, crackles with the pain of jealousy and cries with the agony of loss.

La Bohème exposes your soul to the feelings that only music can express. Some emotions are too big for words alone, and for that, we have music. The Bohemians have some growing up to do. But even the deepest love can’t warm a freezing winter. They head out to bustling Café Momus, where the feisty Musetta and Marcello rekindle their relationship. When Mimì meets Rodolfo, it’s love at first touch. Two hands meet in the dark and four friends’ lives change forever.Įxperience the romance of the original bohemian love story. Within just a few months, it was being performed in opera houses all over the world, and today remains the fourth most frequently performed opera worldwide.On a freezing Christmas Eve, love sparks. The premiere took place in Turin, February 1896, conducted by a young Toscanini. The audience will decide.”*īy December 1895, La bohème was finally finished, and Puccini held a masked ball to celebrate its completion. Giacosa resigned three times and Illica also came close, tired of his work being rejected.Īnother hiccup arose when it transpired that composer Leoncavallo (of Pagliacci fame) was working on his own La bohème, and claimed to have priority on the subject! Puccini, however, paid no attention, writing, “Let him compose.

The meetings of composer, librettists and publisher were described by Illica as “real battles, during which suddenly entire acts were torn to pieces”. Puccini was notoriously difficult to work with, and Murger’s novel (which was really just a collection of short stories) needed completely re-shaping to give it a coherent dramatic form.

The composition process for La bohème spanned three years, and was a stormy one.

La boheme opera duration