1st February 1896 saw the first production, in
Turin, of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Bohème”. The opera was an immediate hit
and has continued to be so ever since. The story of poverty-struck artists and
writers living on their wits in Paris, and the love affair between one of them
and a neighbouring seamstress who is dying of consumption, is a real
tear-jerker, helped enormously by some of Puccini’s best-loved music.
Puccini got his plot from a play called “La Vie de Bohème”
by Henri Murger, who had based the play on his own set of stories entitled “Scènes
de la Vie de Bohème”.
Henri Murger (see photo) was born in 1822 and died in 1861 at the age of
only 39. He earned a living of sorts from writing poetry but never made any
money by so doing – very few poets ever do! However, he was enthralled by the
life of 19th century Paris and appreciated the freedom it offered to
writers, artists and musicians to live in unconstrained and unconventional
ways, which is what the word “bohemian” means – it was believed at the time
that gypsies came from Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) and their independent
lifestyle became the inspiration for other like-minded people.
Henri Murger did much better for himself by writing about
his fellow bohemians, who rejected bourgeois values and chose artistic freedom
even at the price of poverty and poor health. His stories attracted the
attention of other writers who were much more talented than he was, hence the
later adaptations by Puccini and others, and also brought him fame and fortune
towards the end of his short life.
No doubt Henri Murger would have enjoyed seeing “La Bohème”
had he lived long enough. The main character Rudolfo, who sings “Your tiny hand
is frozen” to Mimi, was based on Murger’s Rudolphe, a poet, who is clearly a
self-portrait.
© John Welford
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