Opera "La Boheme": content, video, interesting facts, history

D. Puccini opera "La Boheme"

Opera by Giacomo Puccini "Bohemia"written after the famous work of Bohemia" by Henri Murge. Libretto authors: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera shows the lives of young and very talented people who are independent, full of hopes and dreams, but live very poorly. The composer masterfully conveyed the atmosphere Paris, its Latin Quarter and the attic, where young artists live.

Summary of the opera Puccini "Boheme" and a lot of interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Bohemians"

All events in the opera unfold in the Latin Quarter of Paris, in 1830. Four friends gather in a small attic in the evenings. Many people know them and are sometimes jokingly called “musketeers”: Rudolph (poet), Collen (philosopher), Shonar (musician), Marcel (artist). With their friendly quartet, they often visit the "Momu" cafe, which gathers regulars - freelance artists. Guys often joke and with humor try to relate to everything, even to problems that constantly arise on the path of life.

In their room, as always, it is cold, and there is no money even for food, but the guys do not lose heart, because they will always find a way out of any situation. Even their tenant, they manage a long time not to pay for housing.

Musician Shonar somehow managed to make some money and friends immediately went to a small pub to celebrate this event. Only Rudolph remains to work on his next article. Suddenly a neighbor comes to visit him - beautiful Mimi. Young people get acquainted and understand that mutual feelings flare up between them. The girl now spends all his free time with her beloved and his friends.

However, not everything turns out so smoothly, there are unexpected disagreements between Rudolf and Mimi. Their main reason is that the young man was very jealous of his beloved, when he saw how she danced with an outsider. Mimi did not expect such behavior from the always gentle and kind Rudolph and even decided to ask for help from his friend Marcel. However, a terrible truth is revealed completely unexpectedly for everyone - Rudolph's beloved is ill with consumption. The girl is desperate and forced to separate from her beloved. Subsequently, the beloveds are together again when the dying Mimi is led to the attic by a friend. Alarmed young people immediately rush to the girl, call the doctor, try to warm her, but it's too late. Mimi dies, and Rudolfo suffers inconsolably alongside.

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Interesting Facts

• The main characters have their historical prototypes. Even the legendary cafe "Momu" was a very popular institution among Parisian bohemians. And the image of Rudolph is written off from the author of the novel, Henri Murge.
• It is curious that L. Illica and D. Dzhakoz worked on the libretto for about 2 years, and the composer wrote the music itself in just eight months, so fascinated by his work.
• In 1957, among the librettist papers, one curious manuscript was unexpectedly discovered. It turned out to be the full version of the libretto, where the missing fragment was included before the third act. It was told why it was Rudolph who was jealous of his beloved Mimi. It turns out that four friends had a small party right on the street, where Mimi was invited. Musetta lent her a beautiful red dress and introduced her to Viscount, who immediately invited the beauty to the dance. Seeing this, Rudolph could not hold back his feelings and was very jealous of his beloved.
• The composer and librerat Ruggiero Leoncavallo suggested Giacomo Puccini His version of the libretto, but met with a refusal, wrote another Bogem, which was also called “The life of the Latin Quarter to avoid confusion. After that, the composers' friendship ended.
• The unsuccessful premiere did not prevent further performance of the performance; by 1903, "Bohemia" was performed a hundred times on the stage of Opéra-Comique.
• Despite the world success of the work, the author often heard accusations from critics who considered the music too difficult or not sufficiently refined. So, in 1951, the composer Benjamin britten He wrote: “After four or five performances, I would never have wanted to hear Bohemia again. Despite all the smoothness, I was terribly tired of her primitive and soulless music.”
• The famous tenor Enrico Caruso and his common-law wife Ada Jachetti met while working on "Bogema" and named their sons after the characters, the roles played by: Rudolph and Enrico (Mimi).

• The word "bohemia" comes from the French "bohèmiens" ("Bohemians") in precisely such a term in France as Gypsies, often former actors and musicians.
• When the composer worked on the opera, a peculiar circle of friends formed around him, which was called the Bohemian Club. They gathered in a forest hut by the lake, a place called Torre del Lago in northern Italy. Guests joked, played cards or played music. Often, Puccini enthusiastically began to work on the opera "La Boheme", simultaneously consulting with friends about any details. But sometimes he was too distracted by the hunt, because of which his spouse and close friends were too worried
• By the way, the composer was very unhappy with the chosen theater for the premiere of the opera in Turin. According to him, he has very bad acoustics, besides encores are forbidden.
• It is noteworthy that it was Rudolph’s party that became a landmark for the famous Luciano Povarotti, and it was in this game that he debuted on stage. It is not surprising that he performed it throughout his solo career on many stages in Europe. The audience still remembers his performance at La Scala, behind a single console with Kleiber. In the last scene, he became so accustomed to the role of the suffering Rudolph that he cried with real tears.

Popular arias from the opera "La Boheme"

Rudolph's aria "Che gelida manina" - to listen

Aria Mimi "Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì" - to listen

Muzetta's aria "Quando m'en vò" - listen

Duo Rudolph and Mimi "O soave fanciulla" - listen

History of creation

The plot of the opera is taken from the novel "Scenes from the Life of a Bohemia" by Henri Myurge, which tells about the life of extraordinarily talented but very poor actors. This is the most famous work of the French writer. It is noteworthy that it attracted two composers at once, Puccini and Leoncavallo. Moreover, the second of them even started work on the opera earlier. But Puccini did not stop, he began work on his performance. The libretto was entrusted to two authors at once - L. Illika and D. Djakoz. It is no secret that they have somewhat delayed the delivery of work, so some Puccini numbers wrote on his text and included them in the performance.

Productions

The premiere of the opera took place on February 1, 1896 at the Reggio Theater in Turin. He conducted the play by Arturo Toscanini, who at the time was 28 years old. The first reaction of the public turned out to be rather cool, and some critics even collapsed with caustic remarks. One of them wrote in a review that the opera turned out to be "empty, completely infantile." The composer was very saddened by this, however, after only one year the production in Palermo was amazing. The audience was delighted with the music and the plot, much to the delight of Puccini.

In Russia, the premiere of "Bohemia" was held in 1897. The great merit of this event belongs to the performers of the Private Opera of Savva Mamontov, Nadezhda Zabela, who played the part of Mimi and Fyodor Chaliapin - the part of Shonard, stood out among all the artists.
In the Bolshoi Theater, "Boheme" began to be performed in 1911, thanks to Leonid Sobinov, who translated the text and acted as Rudolph. He was also a production director.

In 1996, the Bolshoi Theater hosted a new production of "Bohemia" in honor of the centenary of the Turin premiere, under the direction of conductor Peter Feranec. The premiere went well and critics praised the performance.

In the cinema stands out the film-opera by Robert Dornhelm. The budget of one and a half million euros has completely paid off, the work turned out great. Such famous performers as Anna Netrebko and Ronaldo Williamson took part in it.

One rather curious case is connected with one of the productions of Bohemia in Philadelphia and the performer Enrico Caruso. His range was unusually wide, and it literally saved the performance. A record is preserved on which he performs the bass part - the famous Collen aria. She is also called Aria with a cloak of 4 actions. The fact is that during the presentation, suddenly hoarse Andreas de Siguerola, performer of the party Collen. Caruso decided to cover his comrade and pulled his hat lower over his eyes, went instead to the stage. The substitution did not notice the replacement, the critics were delighted with such a performance, but the conductor Pollaco was clearly dissatisfied with such a deception.

The performance in February 2012 at the Salzburg Festival was also not without surprises. Peter Bechala - one of the greatest tenors of our time, who played the role of the protagonist Rudolph, suddenly felt ill. It was necessary to urgently find a replacement, since the play was in jeopardy. Unfortunately, there were no free soloists at that time. It was possible to find only Jonas Kaufmann - the most famous performer, he had a small window between performances and he rested with his family on the lake. Unfortunately, there was no time for the stage input and he had to sing from behind the scenes, and Peter Bechala played on the stage and only opened his mouth to such a “phonogram”.

In December 2015, "La Boheme" was first staged at the New Opera musical theater. Director Fabio Mastrangelo prepared a lot of surprises for listeners in his new version. Decades passed between the actions, and the heroes appeared quite unexpectedly successful and rich.

Why opera "Bohemia"is it so loved by the public? It's all about beautiful music? Of course, it plays a huge role in this work, but the audience also liked the touching love story that ended tragically for the characters. This opera acquaints everyone with vivid and interesting pictures from the lives of beautiful artists , talented writers who fall in love, have fun, work and try with humor to overcome all the burdens of such a carefree life. It is not by chance that "Boheme" is officially recognized by critics of one of the best and most popular operas in the world. Do you want to know what a real bohemia is and immerse yourself in the life of free artists? Then we invite you to look at the opera right now and feel the feelings of the legendary heroes, stroll through the narrow streets of Paris in the Latin Quarter and visit the famous Momu cafe with the Musketeers.

We are pleased to offer opera singers and a symphony orchestra to perform arias and excerpts from the opera. "Bohemia" at your event.