For centuries opera was dominated by larger-than-life characters: legendary gods and goddesses, mythical figures from ancient Greece and Rome, kings and queens. But as opera became an ever more popular form of entertainment, that model began to change. The operatic form continued to evolve during the post-Romantic period. Composers began turning to stories about simpler, more realistic characters, creating a whole new set of challenges in the process.

Nobody understood this better than Italian composer Giacomo Puccini: the most important Italian composer of his time.

Puccini was a master of the verismo operatic style. Verismo was an important new development in modern opera. Composers like Puccini and Verdi sought to bring the naturalistic influence of late 19th-century writers such as Émile Zola and Henrik Ibsen into opera. The style began in 1890s, peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered on into the 1920s. Verismo is distinguished by realistic depictions of ordinary people and living everyday life, especially the lives of the lower classes. It was often violent, sordid or sensationally tragic. Verismo evolved from the tradition of the “rescue opera” which also highlighted the heroic struggles of the masses against tyranny and oppression. Both of these styles rejected the historical or mythical subjects associated with Romantic opera.

La bohème is considered one of the most famous and popular operas of all time. Puccini once claimed that his success came from putting “great sorrows in little souls.” His operas were intended to appeal to the widest possible audience. The stories he brought to life in his works demonstrate that common people endure the same trials and tribulations as gods and noblemen: love and envy, jealously, loss and heartbreak. This narrative applies to Puccini’s other famous opera, Madame Butterfly as well, but it is especially true of La bohème, an opera in four acts set amongst a group of struggling artists in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1830s: the ‘bohemians.’

La bohème is a drama about everyday events and common people. The characters and settings were quite familiar to the masses. It would be easy to argue that composers such as Mozart, Wagner and Verdi produced brilliant operas that were far more complex and innovative than Puccini’s: great operas which work on many levels and invite detailed analysis. By comparison, critics argue, Puccini’s operas seem overly simple and straightforward. This is one of the factors which add to La bohème’s enduring popularity, however.

The libretto for La bohème was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera consists of four acts, and the plot is based on a work called Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. Usually referred to as a ‘novel,’ Murger’s book is more akin to a series of vignettes. There is no unified plot. The stories portray the struggles of young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the mid1800s.

Scènes de la vie de bohème was turned into a play by Murger and Théodore Barrière in 1849. Like the play, La bohème’s libretto focuses on the relationship between the two main characters Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death. Also like the play, the libretto combines two characters from the novel, Mimì and Francine, and transposes them into a single character, Mimì.

In the early stages of composition for La bohème, Puccini became embroiled in a dispute with the composer Leoncavallo, who claimed he had offered Puccini a completed libretto and that Puccini should defer to him. Puccini replied that he was unaware of Leoncavallo’s interest in the opera and that he (Puccini) had been working on his own version for some time. He felt obliged to discontinue Leoncavallo’s version. Leoncavallo completed his own adaptation in which Rodolfo by a baritone and Marcello was sung by a tenor. It was a failure and is now rarely performed.

Luigi Illica (1857-1919) ran away to become a sailor in the Italian Navy, and in 1876 he found himself fighting the Turks. He relocated to the relatively peaceful enclave of Milan upon his return to Italy, and began his literary career there. He produced a collection of prose sketches, and later wrote his first play, I Narbonnier-Latour. Illica’s greatest success in playwriting was a comedy called, L’eriditaa di Felis in 1891. He began writing librettos in 1889. Illica’s work on Puccini’s operas La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madame Butterfly (1904) are recognized as his foremost contributions to the field although he also wrote librettos for several other composers as well.

Giuseppe Giacosa (1847-1906) began his professional life as a lawyer. He graduated from law school at Turin University and immediately joined his father’s firm in Milan. He decided to change careers when his one-act verse comedy, Una Partita a scacchi, became a major success.

The Puccini/Illica/Giacosa partnership was arranged by a music publisher named Giulio Ricordi. As head of the most powerful publishing firm in Italy at the time, Ricordi had the ability to make or break any young composer who came along.

The three had a very clear division of responsibilities when working together. It was Illica’s job to plan the scenario: create the opera’s plan, divide into acts and scenes and draft the dialogue. Giacosa transformed the prose into polished verse, and finally Puccini set the verse to music. This collaboration was a huge success.

The world premiere of La bohème took place at the Teatro Regio in Turin on February 1st, 1896. It was conducted by a young Arturo Toscanini, soon to be famous in his own right. The opera did not make its US premiere until 14 October 1897, and oddly enough, it was in Los Angeles, not New York City. The opera finally opened in New York on May 16th, 1898.

Since that time, La bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertoire, and it is one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the world. The contemporary Broadway musical RENT was also based loosely on La bohème.