La bohème

1. 0:00
   Duet, opening exchange

   Rodolfo turns from the window and sees Mimì lit by the moon. He sings “O soave fanciulla, o dolce viso” (“O gentle girl, O sweet face”), and Mimì answers him.

2. 1:10
   Friends in the courtyard

   Rodolfo’s friends have been shouting from the courtyard, impatient to get to the Café Momus. He tells them to keep two places. As they leave, Marcello calls back that the poet has found his poetry. Upstairs, Mimì stands in the moonlight.

3. 1:28
   Mimì asks to go out

   Mimì asks to go out with Rodolfo. He suggests that they stay in, because it is cold outside. She promises to stay close to him.

4. 2:38
   End of Act I, Rodolfo and Mimì

   Rodolfo helps Mimì with her shawl and offers his arm. Before they leave, he asks her to say she loves him, and she answers “Io t’amo” (“I love you”). They go out together into the cold.

1. 0:00
   Duet for Rodolfo and Marcello

   Rodolfo thinks of Mimì’s little hands, scented hair and white neck: “Mimì, mia breve gioventù” — “Mimì, my brief youth.” Beside him, Marcello thinks of Musetta. Tenor and baritone sing together, though each man addresses an absent woman in his own aside.

2. 1:10
   Marcello’s monologue, Act IV

   Marcello says he cannot control his brush. Whether he paints skies, earth, winter or spring, it produces Musetta’s dark eyes and mouth. He calls his own heart cowardly for waiting for her.

3. 1:52
   Rodolfo and Mimì’s bonnet

   Rodolfo has kept the bonnet that Mimì hid beneath his pillow when she left. He takes it from the drawer and presses it to his heart. “Tutta sai la nostra felicità” — “You know all our happiness.”

4. 2:44
   After the duet: the mock feast

   After the duet, Rodolfo asks the time to hide his emotion. Marcello replies that it is yesterday’s lunchtime. Schaunard and Colline arrive with bread and a herring, and the four friends pretend to sit down to a feast.

1. 0:00
   Mimì’s reply to Rodolfo

   “Mi chiamano Mimì, ma il mio nome è Lucia” — “They call me Mimì, but my name is Lucia.” Rodolfo has told her he is a poet. Seated in his attic, she replies by describing her own work, embroidering lilies and roses on linen or silk.

2. 0:35
   Dispute with Leoncavallo

   According to the story, Puccini chose the subject on the train from Turin back to Milan after the triumph of Manon Lescaut. Ruggero Leoncavallo, already writing his own La bohème, claimed priority. Puccini told the Corriere della Sera: “Let him set it to music, then I will. The public will judge.”

3. 1:10
   Mimì’s daily life, Allegretto moderato

   Mimì repeats her name, then tells how she makes her own lunch, prays and lives alone in a little white room. After the opening phrase returns, the score moves into Allegretto moderato over a skipping accompaniment.

4. 1:44
   First performance, Turin, 1896

   At the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1896, Cesira Ferrani sang the first Mimì under the 28-year-old Toscanini. The critics were divided. One review predicted that La bohème “will not leave a big mark in the history of opera”.

5. 2:06
   Candle and key scene, Act I

   Mimì’s candle goes out and she drops her key in Rodolfo’s room. He finds it and pockets it without telling her, so the search in the dark goes on. Before she begins this aria, he has held her cold hand and told her about his poems.

6. 2:20
   “Il primo sole è mio”

   “Il primo sole è mio” — “The first sunshine is mine.” At the thought of spring, Mimì stands up. The tempo changes to Andante molto sostenuto, and her voice rises above an accompaniment that builds to the climax in D major.

7. 3:32
   Final section of Mimì’s aria

   The flowers Mimì embroiders have no scent. Her line drops in volume, and she apologises for disturbing her neighbour so late. Puccini marked the last explanation “senza rigore di tempo, con naturalezza” — “without strict time, naturally” — and the soprano speaks over a held chord.

Joins

1. 1:10
   Mimì begins her introduction again

   The first song about flowers and poetry contracts into a brief exchange with Rodolfo. Mimì then repeats her introduction, marked Lentamente in 2/4. The rising phrase returns with chromatic notes and separated chords underneath, and the soprano has room for pauses between her words.

2. 2:20
   Fermata into Andante molto sostenuto

   Mimì’s account of looking over the roofs ends on a fermata. The metre changes to common time, marked Andante molto sostenuto. The new melody begins over G major harmony, and the bass then moves through E and A to the D major climax.

3. 3:32
   Held D major chord under Mimì’s close

   The earlier flower melody returns at a low dynamic. As Mimì explains that her embroidered flowers have no scent, the accompaniment moves to a sustained D major chord. She sings her final apology in free time over the held chord, marked senza rigore di tempo, con naturalezza. A brief chord closes her introduction.