Baz Luhrmann created a stage production of Puccini's "La Bohème" and in 1993 filmed a performance of it at the Sydney Opera House. I think Luhrmann's showmanship and Puccini's emotional music make a winning combination, and the movie stars romantic leads who are young and physically attractive.
Although "La Bohème" is sung in Italian, the story takes place in Paris and the title is French for "bohemia," the community of artistic and intellectual types whose mores differ conspicuously from those of mainstream society. The libretto is based loosely on a 19th-century French novel by Henri Murger that in English translation is titled "The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter." The original 1896 production of the opera was set in roughly the 1830s, but Luhrmann moved the time period forward to the 1950s.
Murger's novel chronicled the experiences of four bohemian guys, and the opera also features four young men—a poet, a painter, a musician, and a philosopher—who live in poverty in the Latin Quarter. However, the opera's main focus is on a passionate love affair between one of the guys, the poet Rodolfo, and Mimì, a seamstress who suffers from a life-threatening illness.
I would characterize the plot in "La Bohème" as extraordinarily wispy. Stripped to its bare essentials, here's the through storyline: Acts I and II show Rodolfo and Mimì meeting and falling in love. Between Acts II and III they live together for a few weeks, and in Act III they come to an agreement they will separate six or eight weeks in the future. Between Acts III and IV they part company as they had agreed to do, and a few additional weeks elapse. In Act IV, the gravely ill Mimì comes back to Rodolfo and dies.
But I believe "La Bohème" gains some of its emotional punch from telling the love story of Rodolfo and Mimì in a somewhat elliptical fashion. I think it's clear in Act III that Rodolfo has concluded the ailing Mimì will soon die if she continues to live with him in poverty. They both know the only hope for improving her health is for her to get a sugar daddy. In Act IV, we infer she must have acquired a wealthy protector after splitting with Rodolfo because one character tells of seeing her "dressed to kill" and another reports hearing that Mimì "had left the viscount."
I find it heartbreaking in Act III when Rodolfo and Mimì are negotiating their breakup. They quickly reach agreement that it's best for them to separate, but they decide together to postpone the break for a few weeks. My interpretation here is that the painful decision to split up is only tentative at this point, and before finalizing it, they want to take some time to be sure that's what they really want to do. Since it would be agonizing to have to settle on a specific cutoff date for making the final decision, they'll let nature choose it for them: "We'll part when the flowers bloom again."
The doomed love of Rodolfo and Mimì is contrasted with an amusing on-again-off-again romantic relationship between the painter Marcello and a flirtatious woman named Musetta. She figures prominently in Act II, which I find very entertaining. The four bohemian guys plus Mimì are having supper at a café when Musetta shows up with an elderly admirer, an old fool who is duped into paying for everything. In one of opera's most memorable moments, Musetta sings "Quando men vo," celebrating how when she walks along the street, all eyes are on her.
I would say "La Bohème" owes its popularity mainly to Puccini's melodic genius and his ability to create atmosphere through music. One of my favorite numbers is Rodolfo's "Che gelida manina," where he touches Mimì's hand for the first time and tenderly warms it with his own. For me, the romantic high point comes near the end of Act I when Rodolfo and Mimì sing "O soave fanciulla," and Luhrmann has them perform this love-duet on a rooftop, in front of a big sign reading "L'amour." Finally, there's the profound sadness in Mimì's "Sono andati? Fingevo di dormire" where, just before dying, she tells Rodolfo he is her love and her whole life.
"La Bohème" starts out light and frothy with the four guys reveling in the bohemian lifestyle they are living, and their poverty is simply a mild, temporary inconvenience to them. But beginning with Act III, the mood darkens, and I see Mimì's death at the end as symbolizing a paradise lost. I doubt there's any work of art of any kind that captures the quality of pathos better than "La Bohème."
Luhrmann's version of "La Bohème" on DVD comes from Image Entertainment, and there are no bonus materials of any kind. Below I've listed the DVD's properties.
DVD Details:
- DVD Release Date: November 12, 2002
- Feature Run Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
- MPAA Rating: Not Rated
- Full-Screen (1.33:1), Color
- Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
- Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- English Subtitles
