When and where did La bohème premiere?
La bohème premiered on the 1st of February 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy. The performance was conducted by the 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini, with Evan Gorga as Rodolfo and Cesira Ferrani as Mimì.
Questions about La bohème
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is La bohème based on?
La bohème is based on Scènes de la vie de bohème, an 1851 collection of vignettes by Henri Murger depicting young bohemians in 1840s Paris. The librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa also drew on an 1849 stage adaptation of Murger's work co-written with Théodore Barrière.
Who composed La bohème and what is the dispute with Leoncavallo?
Giacomo Puccini composed La bohème between 1893 and 1895. Ruggero Leoncavallo claimed he had offered Puccini a completed libretto on the same subject and that Puccini should defer to him. Puccini declined, and Leoncavallo completed his own opera also titled La bohème, which premiered in 1897 but never achieved comparable popularity.
What is the missing act of La bohème?
A complete act was discovered in 1957 among the papers of librettist Luigi Illica, housed at the Parma Museum after his widow's death. The act was set between the Café Momus scene and Act 3, depicting a courtyard party at Musetta's residence where Mimì dances a quadrille with a Viscount, provoking Rodolfo's jealousy. Puccini chose not to include it in the final opera.
How many tenors have recorded Che gelida manina from La bohème?
Between 1900 and 1980, nearly 500 tenors recorded "Che gelida manina" in at least seven languages. Enrico Caruso made his recording of the aria in 1906. In 1981 the A.N.N.A. Record Company released a six LP set featuring 101 different tenors singing it.
What Broadway and film adaptations are based on La bohème?
Baz Luhrmann staged a modernized La bohème on Broadway in 2002, running for 228 performances and winning two Tony Awards at the 57th Tony Awards. Jonathan Larson's 1996 musical Rent transplants the story to New York City with AIDS replacing tuberculosis. Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge! also draws heavily on the opera's plot.