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2024/2025 Concert Season Closing Concert · Puccini's La Bohème —— Opera in Concert

Author: 深圳交响乐团 ,Release Date: 2025-08-21 ,View:468


2024/2025 Concert Season Closing Concert

Special Production



Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème —— Opera in Concert



Fri. 18/07/2025 19:30

Shenzhen Concert Hall



Production Team

Conductor｜Lin Daye

Opera coach｜Guan Jun

Chorus Master｜Luo Shenka

Children Chorus Coach｜Liu Qiaoyue Chen Yifan



Cast

Mimì｜Wu Tongyu

Rodolfo｜Yu Song

Marcello｜Li Geng

Musetta｜Zong Yingying

Colline｜Chen Zuhao

Schaunard｜Chen Jiongran

Beno t & Alcindoro｜Wang Duoduo

Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra

Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra Children Choir



Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème

ACT I: Christmas Eve, in a tiny room at the top of a house in Paris’s Latin Quarter
ACT II: Café Momus and the surrounding streets
------Intermission of 20 minutes --------
ACT III: A tavern at the gates of Paris

ACT IV: The Latin Quarter apartment

* The programme runs approximately 2 hours 10 minutes with a 20-minutes intermission



OPERA NOTES

La Bohème, a magnum opus by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini, was composed during the golden age of Italian opera in the late 19th century. Adapted from French author Henri Murger's novel Scènes de la vie de bohème, this opera immortalizes the lives of four impoverished young artists in Paris' Latin Quarter, weaving together youthful ardor, the purity of love, and the idealism of freedom. Its portrayal of poetic fervor amid poverty and spiritual transcendence beyond material constraints continues to illuminate the essence of humanity a century later.

Puccini's own youth infused the opera with emotional authenticity. After enrolling at the Milan Conservatory in 1880, his years of frugal student life in cafés and garrets with peers became the wellspring for the opera's artist archetypes. Notably, the opera's creation was shadowed by a historic rivalry: composer Ruggero Leoncavallo nearly simultaneously crafted an opera of the same title. Yet Puccini's triumph lay in his psychological nuance and the dramatic vitality coursing through his melodies, securing La Bohème's timeless status. Collaborating with librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa over three years (1893 1896), Puccini meticulously refined the score, even rewriting pivotal sections to achieve his vision of "every note narrating a story."
Premiered at Turin's Teatro Regio on February 1, 1896, under Arturo Toscanini's baton, La Bohème initially faced lukewarm reception, with critics decrying its departure  from grand operatic traditions. Its true acclaim blossomed during the April revival in Palermo, where audiences were enraptured by the lovers Rodolfo and Mimì's embrace in the aria "O soave fanciulla", their melodies transcending language as universal heartbeats. As Thomas Edison famously wrote to Puccini: "Men perish, powers crumble, but the spirit of La Bohème lives on." Elevating mundane existence into artistic truth, this masterpiece not only pioneered verismo opera but stands alongside Carmen and La Traviata as one of the three pillars of the operatic canon.
In Puccini's hands, mundane details—flickering garret candles, a seamstress's tremulous cough, a poet's crumpled manuscript—are alchemized into eternity through music. When Mimì's life ebbs with falling snow in Act IV, and the four friends share their last crust of bread, audiences witness not merely 19th-century bohemians, but humanity's shared dance with fate. This alchemy of transforming hardship into artistic sublimity ensures La Bohème's enduring radiance in operatic history. Like the undying candle flame in its own narrative, it illuminates souls across eras, forever chasing love and liberation.



SYNOPSIS

ACT I

Christmas Eve, in a tiny room at the top of a house in Paris's Latin Quarter

Rodolfo and Marcello complain about the bittercold.They need to light theirstove:Marcello suggests using a chair,but Rodolfo offers the manuscript of the play he iswriting.Colline enters and the remaining acts of the play are burned.

Schaunard enters with wood,food,and wine.He explains that an Englishmanengaged him to play his violin to hasten the death of a parrot.The friends decide to goto eat inthe Latin Quarter but are interrupted by Benoit,their landlord,who has comefor the rent.They ply him with wine and Benoit boasts ofhis sexual prowess.The Bohe-mians pretend outrage at Benoit's immorality and push him out.

Marcello,Colline,and Schaunard head to Café Momus,leaving Rodolfo behind tofinish an article.There is a knock at the door.It is a young woman who asks fora lightfor her candle.She feels faint from climbing the stairs.As she is leaving,her candlelickers out again and she realizes that she has lost her key.Rodolfo's candle also goesoutand they search for herkey in the moonlight.Rodolfo takes the young woman's icyhand and tells her of his life as a poet.She tells him her name,Mimi,and describes hersimple life as a flower embroiderer.Schaunard,Colline,and Marcello shout up toRodolfo to hurry.Mimi asks if she mayjoin them at the Café Momus.Rodolfo suggeststhey might stay in,but eventually they leave together singing of their love.

ACT II

Café Momus and the surrounding streets

Rodolfo and Mimì wander through the Christmas Eve crowds.Rodolfo introducesMimi to his friends.When Mimì shows her new friends the bonnet Rodolfo has broughther,Marcello expresses cynicism about romance.

As they propose a toast,Marcello's ex-girlfriend Musetta appears,accompanied byAlcindoro,her rich admirer.Agitated at being ignored by Marcello,Musetta launchesinto a song-to provokeand seduce him.She complains of apainful foot and dispatch-es Alcindoro to buy new shoes.The bill for supper arnives,but the Bohemians havealready spent their moneyMusetta places their bill on Alcindoro's plate.A marchingband arrives,and the Bohemians leave with Musetta.Alcindoro retums and is present-ed with the bill.

ACT III

A tavern at the gates of Paris

Workers arrive from out of town to enter the city.From inside a tavern comes thevoice of Musetta.Mimi appears,ill and wracked with coughing.She asks for Marcello.He tells her thathe and Musetta are now living at the inn and that Rodolfo turned upinthe night.Mimi explains that Rodolfo's jealousy is destroying their relationship andhewants to leave her.Marcello advises Mimi to go,but she hides nearby.

Rodolfo comes out of the tavem and says he will break up with Mimì:her flirtinghas incensed him.Eventually,however,he reveals the real reason for their separation:she is so ill that his miserable poverty offers her nothing but the prospect of death.They hear Mimi crying and coughing.As Rodolfo rushes to her,Musetta's laughter isheard and Marcello rushes into the tavern to see what sheis doing.Mimi says farewellto Rodolfo,telling him that she will send a porter for her possessions.She proposesthat he keep her bonnet as a memento of their love.Marcello and Musetta quarrel andseparate.Rodolfo and Mimidecide to postpone their separation until the spring.

ACT IV

The Latin Quarter apartment

Marcello and Rodolfo taunt each other about their ex-lovers:Rodolfo has seenMusetta in a fine cariage and Marcello has seen Mimi dressed like a queen.Theypretend not to miss their lovers,but then admit that they do.Schaunard and Cllinearrive with bread and a herring and the four eat and amuse each other.

Suddenly Musetta enters.She has brought Mimi,who is desperately ill.Musettaexplains that she met her in the street and that Mimì begged to be taken to Rodolfo.Mimi rallies and greetsthe friends.Musetta instructs Marcello to sell her earrings to payfor medicine and a doctor.Colline leaves to pawn his overcoat.Alone with Rodolfo,Mimi expresses her boundless love for him.He shows her the bonnet and theyreminisce about their first meeting.The others return with amuff and medicine,prom-ising that a doctor will come.Mimì dies unnoticed while they are preparing her medi-cine.Colline arrives with money from the pawnbroker,but it is too late.