![]() They are young, attractive, and certain never to make it. This delusion only applies to the four male principals. This unique skill is obvious in almost every note of La Bohème which is a story of ordinary people who labor under the common delusion that they are extraordinary. Puccini’s unique genius was to set ordinary conversation to melodies that are beautiful, memorable, and apt. Henderson and Krehbiel are dead Bohème is still alive and triumphant. After 1305 performances by the Met, far more than any other opera, we can firmly conclude that the audience has rendered a decisive verdict – La Bohème is a miracle of construction melody, wit, comedy, and pathos. WJ Henderson writing in the New York Times said, “We cannot believe that there is permanent success for an opera constructed as this one is.” Henry Krehbiel in the New York Tribune went even further, “La Bohème is foul in subject and fulminant, but futile, in its music.” There are still critics who deride Puccini’s masterpiece as common or cheap. New York’s two most important music critics gave proof to Giuseppe Verdi’s declaration that the only critic that counted was the audience. It was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House on December 26, 1900. ![]() The Metropolitan Opera first performed it on tour in the same city three years later. It was performed by a pick-up company in Los Angeles in 1897. Nevertheless it rapidly spread throughout the world reaching America the following year. First performed in 1896 at Turin’s Teatro Reggio under the direction of Arturo Toscanini it initially received an indifferent response. Virtually everyone loves it, even those who are indifferent to opera. Puccini’s La Bohème is one of the very few operas that have transcended its genre. ![]() ![]() The program notes I’ve written for the occasion are below. The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra will present two concert performances of Puccini’s opera on May 5-6.
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