Four scenes to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, from the novel “Scènes de la vie de bohème” by Henri Murger. First performance: Turin, Teatro Regio, 1 February 1896.

It is said that Puccini decided to write this opera during the train journey which took him back to Milan after the triumphal performances of Manon Lescaut in Turin. Two travelling companions proposed themselves as librettists, a lawyer and a music critic. Shortly after a bitter dispute broke out – amplified by Milan periodicals – with Ruggero Leoncavallo: both were at work on the same subject and Leoncavallo claimed priority. Puccini gave to the “Corriere della Sera” the famous phrase: “Let him set it to music, then I will. The public will judge”. Puccini’s La bohème uses that pair of librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which will accompany him up to Madama Butterfly. It certainly was not easy to achieve a good libretto starting from the novel by Murger, and Puccini continued to request and / or impose modifications (the most striking involved deleting an entire act, the courtyard act in Rue Labruyère), so that Giacosa threatened to abandon the enterprise. Puccini was also distracted from his work by frequent trips to attend performances of Manon Lescaut and, above all, the interest in another subject, “La Lupa” by Giovanni Verga. It was not until the Summer of 1894 that Puccini, after a journey to Sicily to meet Verga and also to collect material for the composition, permanently shelved the project and devoted himself with conviction to La bohème. Somewhat earlier, in June, 1893, he had begun to draft the music. 1895 is the year in which the work was accomplished, amid bitter discussions with the librettists, and attempts at peace-making by Ricordi, when composition and orchestration proceeded at a fast pace. In the Summer Puccini stayed at the Villa del Castellaccio, near Pescia, and worked hard. Carlo Carignani was also there, preparing the reduction for voice and piano of the songs that Puccini gradually completed. he work was then finished in Torre del Lago, at the end of November. One of the earliest biographers, Ferruccio Pagni, referred that Puccini, at the piano, called for silence from friends who were playing cards in the same room and then exclaimed: “I’ve finished”! Puccini then even summoned friends from Lucca for a costume party: the work had been completed in the environment that had provided its initial inspiration.

The debut was debatable: the audience applauded, but critics were divided between lukewarm praise and harsh slating. One review was famous, but certainly not prophetic: “La bohème, just as it does not leave a great impression on the mind of the audience, will not leave a big mark in the history of opera”. Instead it is well known that La bohème is one of the most frequently performed operas. Puccini did not make major changes to the score, conscious of the completeness of his work.