Opera Explained | La Bohème by Puccini (Audio)

"An introduction to....Puccini - La Bohème" written by Thomson Smillie, narrated by David Timson.

La Bohème is one of three operas – the others are Carmen and Aida – believed to be the most popular ever written. In the case of La Bohème the reason is that it virtually defines the term ‘romantic’. The poignant story of Mimi and Rodolfo is told in music of such tender beauty, allied, as always, to Puccini’s intuition of what works in the theatre, resulting in an opera that readily appeals to our emotions and senses.

Puccini was born in Lucca on the western side of Italy in 1858, was trained in the family tradition as a musician and, like most opera composers, fumbled his first opera, Le villi. But with his second, Manon Lescaut in 1893, he scored a smash hit and followed it with a string of operas which remain the backbone of the popular operatic repertory – and the box-office salvation of every opera company. Butterfly, Tosca and La Bohème head the list.

Puccini was a master of theatrical craftsmanship (as was Verdi), and knew what would work as cannily as any later Broadway impresario. He made his librettists’ lives hell (as did Verdi) until they supplied him with exactly the verses he needed and the dramatic situations to create his sensations and spin his melodies. And the result is a series of operas which deliver an emotional wallop few other composers can match.

Because deep down, all the opera lover wants is a good story and some great melodies. La Bohème delivers both. The story is extracted from Murger’s Scenes from Bohemian Life, a popular novel telling of the adventures of young and starving artists, in love and in Paris. Rodolfo meets Mimì; they have a variously tender, occasionally stormy, love affair. They split and they come together again. In the end both are doomed and defeated by the opera’s omnipresent villain – poverty.

Puccini, who adored women, in life as in art, created the lovely heroine Mimì and invested her with some of his most glorious melodies. Master craftsman that he was, he provided moments of spectacle, a great deal of humour and what used to be called horseplay, some philosophy and much tenderness.

The result is an opera that has enchanted the public for 100 years and even has occasionally, as in the superbly constructed third act – one of the perfect acts in opera – delighted the academics and earned the admiration of the grumpiest pundit.

Tracklist:
1. La Bohème
2. ‘Donna non vidi mai’ from Manon Lescaut
3. ‘Un bel di’: One fine day from Madama Butterfly
4. The story…
5. Benoit is ejected
6. Mimì’s theme tune
7. ‘Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì’ – Yes. They call me Mimì
8. ‘O soave fanciulla’ – Oh beautiful maiden
9. Act II – The Café Momus
10. ‘Questa è Mimì’ – This is Mimì
11. The arrival of Musetta
12. ‘Quando m’en vo…’ – When I stroll out alone…
13. The closing minutes of Act II
14. Act III
15. Mimì sings of Rodolfo’s jealousy
16. Mimì è tanta malata! – Mimì is desperately ill!
17. ‘D’onde lieta uscì’ – Mimì. Mimì’s aria leading to the great quartet
18. Act IV
19. Musetta arrives
20. Colline’s farewell to his coat
21. Colline’s farewell to his coat
22. The death of Mimì