Giacomo Puccini LA BOHÈME In nineteenth-century Paris, it is love at first sight between Rodolfo and Mimì, both penniless. While Mimì is gradually bitten by the disease, Rodolfo wants to leave in the hope that she will take a new rich lover who will allow him to live. The new rising personalities of the Met come together to once again bring Franco Zeffirelli's famous production to life. The Bulgarian Sonya Yoncheva and the American Michael Fabiano will play the damned lovers Mimì and Rodolfo, a duet that will revive the drama and lyricism of Puccini's score. Conductor Marco Armiliato Mimi Sonya Yoncheva soprano Musetta Suzanna Phillips soprano Rodolfo Michael Fabiano tenor Marcello Lucas Meachem baryton Schaunard Alexey Lavrov baryton Colline Matthew Rose bass Benoit/Alcindoro Paul Plishka bass DATE : Saturday 24th February 2018 Time : 6.00 pm Opera in 4 acts by Giacomo Puccini
LA BOHÈME World premiere: Teatro Regio, Turin, 1896. Met company premiere: Los Angeles (on tour), November 9, 1900. La Bohème, the passionate, timeless, and indelible story of love among young artists in Paris, can stake its claim as the world s most popular opera. It has a marvelous ability to make a powerful first impression and to reveal unsuspected treasures after dozens of hearings. At first glance, La Bohème is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things a bonnet, an old overcoat, a chance meeting with a neighbor that make up our everyday lives. Setting The libretto sets the action in Paris, circa 1830. This is not a random setting, but rather reflects the issues and concerns of a particular time when, following the upheavals of revolution and war, French artists had lost their traditional support base of aristocracy and church. The story centers on self-conscious youth at odds with mainstream society a Bohemian ambience that is clearly recognizable in any modern urban center. La Bohème captures this ethos in its earliest days.
Music Lyrical and touchingly beautiful, the score of La Bohème exerts an immediate emotional pull. Many of its most memorable melodies are built incrementally, with small intervals between the notes that carry the listener with them on their lyrical path. This is a distinct contrast to the grand leaps and dives that earlier operas often depended on for emotional effect. La Bohème s melodic structure perfectly captures the small people (as Puccini called them) of the drama and the details of everyday life. Composer Giacomo Puccini 1858-1924 Childhood, studies and debut Born in Lucca (Italy) on December 22, 1858, Giacomo Puccini is the sixth child and the only brother of five girls (oh woe!), Until the arrival of the youngest five years later (phew). He comes from a line of musicians. Albina, the mother, is convinced of the musical gifts of her son. Around the age of fifteen, Puccini enrolled at the Lucca Music Institute and began writing small pieces for the organ. At that time, his teacher Carlo Angeloni introduced him to the music of Giuseppe Verdi. In 1876, he attended Pisa at the performance of Verdi's Aida. Enthusiastic, Puccini decides to become a composer. In 1880 he entered the Milan Conservatory, but he was already 22 years old. Through his mother, he gets a grant from Queen Marguerite. His uncle also participates in the interview of Puccini. His musical studies are conducted under the direction of Antonio Bazzini and especially Amilcare Ponchielli. Passionate about opera, he abandons other musical subjects. In July 1883, he left the Conservatory after having composed the Ciapriccio sinfonico. Ponchielli encourages him to try a career in opera and advises him to register for a competition organized by a wealthy industrialist Eduardo Sonzogno.
The competition consisted of composing an opera in one act. The laureate was sure to see his piece represented. Fontana, a journalist, writes the booklet. The work, The Villi (The Witches), is presented in extremis and practically illegible: it is neglected by the jury. A late career Puccini is 26 when he loses the contest. Nevertheless, Boito, Verdi's librettist, notices the work and comes to his aid. The Villi is represented on May 31, 1884 and gets a triumph. Giacomo can send this telegram to his mother: "All hopes are out, Eighteen reminders, first final wrinkled, I am delighted." Apogee and trio Following this first success, Puccini signed a contract with the famous publishing house Ricordi. He rewrote Le Villi in two acts and this new version is also favorably received. In July 1884, his mother died and left the composer deeply affected. Shortly after, he seduces the wife of a friend who is not very suspicious. He will eventually "kidnap" her to live with her and marry him in 1904. This affair will make a great noise in Lucca and scramble Puccini with his uncle protector. His next work, Edgar (commissioned by his publisher), is the least inspired of his operas because the libretto does not please him (it must be said that the plot has much in common with his escapades vaudevillesques). After five years of work, the play was given without success in April 1889. It was then inspired by the novel by Father Prévost to compose Manon Lescaut. It will be his first masterpiece and one of the most intense moments of his artistic life. With the librettists Illica and Giacosa, he then goes to work on La Bohème which will be the fruit of three years of work (listen to the Air of Mimi and read Mi chiamano Mimi). The trio (Puccini and his two librettists) works perfectly and their association will last until 1906. Together, they will write the three great operas: Bohemia, Tosca and Madame Butterfly. Bohemia was completed in December 1895 and presented in February 1896 with great success. Puccini becomes a personality and at 38, he now has enough money to satisfy his passion for hunting and beautiful cars. Italian wedding When Puccini married Elvira Geminiani in 1904, they have been lovers for ten years and they even have a child (Antonio). But when he seduced her in 1894 on the occasion of piano lessons, Elvira was already married... with a childhood friend of the composer. This does not prevent him from adding the young woman to his "little gardens" (this is what he calls his conquests). The two lovebirds hide their relationship badly. The husband is not very suspicious and often absent, so that all Lucca is aware... except the deceived husband. The height of scandal, Puccini ends up "abducting" Elvira to live with her. The affair makes a great noise in Lucca and blurs Puccini with his uncle protector. And it is useless to think of a marriage that would legalize the situation because it would first be necessary for Elvira to divorce (which is forbidden in Italy at the time). A helping hand solves the problem in 1903: the death of the husband... Beautiful opera-food! After having tried several times to create an opera about Marie-Antoinette, Puccini feverishly gets to work on a drama by David Belasco, Mrs. Butterfly, which mixes drama and exoticism. The work was created in 1904 at La Scala in Milan (listen to "On the Calmed Sea").
When she was created in 1904, she was coldly welcomed. During the scene where we hear birdsong, the room laughs and various animal cries cover the music. Puccini has other setbacks: during the composition of Madame Butterfly, a car accident leaves him lame for the rest of his life. In 1906, one of his dear librettists, Giacosa, died. However, he embarks on a confusing project: a kind of western lyric, The Girl of the Far West (listen to the introduction). The work, created in New York in 1910, is initially a success but will then be shunned by the public. He then composes an operetta, La Rondine, for the Carl Theater in Vienna. It is a failure, the work is also rather mediocre. End of life In late 1923, the composer, a great smoker, began to experience serious health problems and the first symptoms of a throat tumor appeared. Nevertheless, he begins to write Turandot, a tragic tale about a Chinese legend where love triumphs over death: listen to the air "Let no one sleep" and read Nessun dorma. In a letter to conductor Arturo Toscanini, Puccini writes: "My opera will be given unfinished. Someone will then go on the stage and say to the public: here the maestro's work ends, he was there when he died. " That's what Toscanini did when he was created in 1926. The room, overwhelmed by emotion, was silent for a few moments before bursting into a tremendous ovation. The composer died of cardiac arrest on November 29, 1924. Under the ease and ease of speech (listen to O mio babbino from Gianni Schicchi), the analysis reveals a complex and personal art. Maurice Ravel admired the transparency of his orchestration, and Schoenberg recognized the novelty of his harmonic language. Puccini admired the Achilles Pelléas Claude Debussy and was one of the first admirers of Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka. Synopsis Act I Paris, in the 1830s. In their Latin Quarter garret, the near-destitute artist Marcello and poet Rodolfo try to keep warm on Christmas Eve by feeding the stove with pages from Rodolfo s latest drama. They are soon joined by their roommates Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician, who brings food, fuel, and funds he has collected from an eccentric
nobleman. While they celebrate their unexpected fortune, the landlord, Benoit, comes to collect the rent. After getting the older man drunk, the friends urge him to tell of his flirtations, then throw him out in mock indignation at his infidelity to his wife. As the others depart to revel at the Café Momus, Rodolfo remains behind to finish an article, promising to join them later. There is another knock at the door the visitor is Mimì, a pretty neighbor, whose candle has gone out in the stairwell. As she enters the room, she suddenly feels faint. Rodolfo gives her a sip of wine, then helps her to the door and relights her candle. Mimì realizes that she lost her key when she fainted, and as the two search for it, both candles go out. Rodolfo finds the key and slips it into his pocket. In the moonlight, he takes Mimì s hand and tells her about his dreams. She recounts her life alone in a lofty garret, embroidering flowers and waiting for the spring. Rodolfo s friends call from outside, telling him to join them. He responds that he is not alone and will be along shortly. Happy to have found each other, Mimì and Rodolfo leave, arm in arm, for the café. Act II Amid the shouts of street hawkers near the Café Momus, Rodolfo buys Mimì a bonnet and introduces her to his friends. They all sit down and order supper. The toy vendor Parpignol passes by, besieged by children. Marcello s former sweetheart, Musetta, makes a noisy entrance on the arm of the elderly, but wealthy, Alcindoro. The ensuing tumult reaches its peak when, trying to gain Marcello s attention, she loudly sings the praises of her own popularity. Sending Alcindoro away to buy her a new pair of shoes, Musetta finally falls into Marcello s arms. Soldiers march by the café, and as the bohemians fall in behind, the returning Alcindoro is presented with the check. Act III At dawn at the Barrière d Enfer, a toll-gate on the edge of Paris, a customs official admits farm women to the city. Guests are heard drinking and singing within a tavern. Mimì arrives, searching for the place where Marcello and Musetta now live. When the painter appears, she tells him of her distress over Rodolfo s incessant jealousy. She says she believes it is best that they part. As Rodolfo emerges from the tavern, Mimì hides nearby. Rodolfo tells Marcello that he wants to separate from Mimì, blaming her flirtatiousness. Pressed for the real reason, he breaks down, saying that her illness can only grow worse in the poverty they share. Overcome with emotion, Mimì comes forward to say goodbye to her lover. Marcello runs back into the tavern upon hearing Musetta s laughter. While Mimì and Rodolfo recall past happiness, Marcello returns with Musetta, quarreling about her flirting with a customer. They hurl insults at each other and part, but Mimì and Rodolfo decide to remain together until springtime. Act IV Months later in the garret, Rodolfo and Marcello, now separated from their girlfriends, reflect on their loneliness. Colline and Schaunard bring a meager meal. To lighten their spirits, the four stage a dance, which turns into a mock duel. At the height of the hilarity, Musetta bursts in with news that Mimì is outside, too weak to come upstairs. As Rodolfo runs to her aid, Musetta relates how Mimì begged to be taken to Rodolfo to die. She is made as comfortable as possible, while Musetta asks Marcello to sell her earrings for medicine and Colline goes off to pawn his overcoat. Left alone, Mimì and Rodolfo recall their meeting and their first happy days, but she is seized with violent coughing. When the others return,
Musetta gives Mimì a muff to warm her hands, and Mimì slowly drifts into unconsciousness. Musetta prays for Mimì, but it is too late. The friends realize that she is dead, and Rodolfo collapses in despair. Next broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera New York SEMIRAMIS Gioachino ROSSINI Saturday 10th march 2018 6.30 pm