Giacosa complained that he used more paper and time on La bohéme that he had on any of his other dramas. Puccini was dividing his time between two projects while taking them to task for their slowness on the present one. Puccini began toying with the idea of writing another work called La lupa ( The She-Wolf). This arrangement was not the best for getting the work done in a timely manner. Most decisions about the opera were made through letters sent back and forth between Ricordi (Puccini's publisher), the two librettists, and the composer. Puccini wrote most of La bohème at Torre del Lago, a village in Tuscany he had just made his home. Playwright Théodore Barrière suggested making a play of the book, and Murger accepted. He worked as a secretary until 1841 when he became a journalist and joined the poor artists and writers who called themselves Bohemians.įrom 1845 to 1848, Murger's stories about Bohemian life in Paris were serialized (published in parts) in a French magazine. Henri Murger was born in 1822 to an immigrant German tailor in Paris. The opera was adapted to a movie in 1965 and the 1996 Broadway musical, Rent. The opera is based on a book by Henri Murger called Scenes from Bohemian Life ( French: Scènes de la vie de bohème).Īrturo Toscanini conducted the first performance of La bohème on Februat the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy.

The opera tells the story of a love affair between a poor poet and an equally poor seamstress in 19th century Paris.

The libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The music was written by Giacomo Puccini. This is a partial discography of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème which premiered on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.La bohème (pronounced, 'La bo-EM') is an Italian opera in four acts.

La boheme opera wikipedia