Giacomo Puccini’s opera about artists living in Paris’s Latin Quarter is La bohème.
La bohème premiered at Turin’s Teatro Regio on 1 February 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa wrote the Italian libretto, adapting Henri Murger’s 1851–1857 scenes from bohemian life. The episodic source portrays young artists whose lives combine poverty, friendship, romance, and illness.
The opera follows the poet Rodolfo, the seamstress Mimì, the painter Marcello, Musetta, and their friends. Its four acts move between an impoverished attic, a lively café in the Latin Quarter, and a snowy city setting. The score includes “Che gelida manina,” “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì,” and Musetta’s waltz, “Quando me’n vo.”
La bohème is sometimes confused with Leoncavallo’s opera of the same title, which also draws on Murger. Puccini’s version became the better-known international repertory work. It also inspired Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent, whose setting changes from nineteenth-century Paris to late-twentieth-century New York.