La Boheme - AHB

I'm doing this one a little out of order since it is still so fresh in my memory. Rather than analyze the topic of my presentation, I just want to take about it's impact as a piece of art, especially some of the scenes/motifs/songs that spoke to me.

First a short artistic note. I thought the sets in La Boheme were the best I've seen from the operas/performances I've been to in Prague. The Cafe Momus and apartment set were especially well done. The performances, on the other hand, left a little to be desired but overall the cast was strong. I've been watching and listening to Pavarotti play the role of Rodolpho, so I'll grant that any comparison is not going to be especially fair.

The first really notable scene is the meeting between Rodolfo and Mimi in the first act. While lighting her candle Mimi loses her key, which Rodolfo pockets in order to prolong this encounter. I love the image of the two bohemians groping on the floor in search of the key and ending up with their hands brushing across each other. The randomness of this event is such that it is easy to overlook the underlying symbolism, but there is so much going on here. Rodolfo is a poet who lives like a king in a world of words, while Mimi is a seamstress who escapes into the realm of flowers. Both of these realms possess beauty of their own but their true power is only revealed through love. The loss of artificial light and the accidental touch of the hands brought true illumination to their being, making real what had before only been an abstraction. Sometimes it's the moments we least control that change our lives the most.

The Cafe Momus scene makes me laugh because Rodolfo and Mimi might as well not even be present, they are living in a world of their own.

The second scene I want to talk about occurs outside of the customs house in act 3. Mimi overhears Rodolfo tell Marcello the true reason for his rejection of Mimi. Rodolfo realizes that she is dying and knows that he does not have the capacity to provide for her needs. At first it seems that they agree to separate, but after a moment they decide that "no one should be alone during the winter" - possibly my favorite line of the show. As a compromise they choose to remain together until the Spring, at which point Mimi sings, "Let the Winter last forever". Ironically, the random circumstances that brought the two together are now tearing them apart. The bohemian creeds is based on accepting life for better or worse, and choosing not to reject the greatest passions available to man in order to avoid the inevitable pain that will come.

Puccini has created characters that affect in the deepest possible way - even if I had wanted to do my presentation afterward, there is no way that I could have.