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- Herausgeber: Icon Books
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Serie: Great Operas
- Sprache: Englisch
Puccini's obsession with detail ensured the success of La Bohème, his opera about the impoverished 'artistes' in Paris in the 1830s. Soon after its première, people started calling their baby daughters Mimi. The story of this seamstress, her hectic but fraught love affair with the poet Rodolfo and her tragic death from consumption (tuberculosis), never fail to touch the audience. Che gelida manina, Mi chiamano Mimì …, and O soave fanciulla have become some of the most popular operatic excerpts, sung by stars ranging from Callas to Gheorghiu, Caruso to Pavarotti. Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, 'Short Guides to Great Operas' are concise, entertaining and easy to read books about opera. Each is an opera guide packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience. Other 'Short Guides to Great Operas' that you may enjoy include Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Turandot.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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Published in the UK in 2012 by Icon Books Ltd,
Omnibus Business Centre, 29–41 North Road, London N7 9DP
email: [email protected]
www.iconbooks.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-84831-464-1 (ePub format)
ISBN: 978-1-84831-471-9 (Adobe ebook format)
Text copyright © 2012 Michael Steen
The author has asserted his moral rights.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Typesetting by Marie Doherty
CONTENTS
Title page
Copyright
PREFACE
USING THIS EBOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PUCCINI’S LA BOHÈME
THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER
WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S WHAT
THE INTERVAL: TALKING POINTS
Puccini’s place as a composer
Detail in the libretto
Detail in the music
ACT BY ACT
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sources of quotes
Other sources
NOTES
Short Guides to Great Operas
PREFACE
This guide is aimed at the ordinary opera-goer and opera-lover, usually a busy person who wants to know the essentials of the opera but has little time to grasp them.
It provides key background information to La Bohème, told engagingly by someone who knows the opera intimately.
It is light, easy to read, and entertaining. Relevant information has been carefully selected to enhance your appreciation of Puccini’s work.
It is authoritative, but not dense or academic. It is unburdened with the clutter that can easily be obtained elsewhere. It concentrates on information that it will help you to know in advance.
Read quickly before going to the opera or listening to it at home, you will get the very best out of the performance and have a truly enjoyable experience.
Opera can be a great social occasion. Being knowledgeable and well-informed, you’ll appreciate this magical art-form much more if you read this first.
I hope you enjoy the opera!
Michael Steen
USING THIS EBOOK
A very quick grasp of the opera can be gained by reading the opening section on ‘The opera and its composer’ and the ensuing ‘Who’s who and what’s what’. Further elaboration may be found in the sections entitled ‘The interval: talking points’ and ‘Act by act’.
The footnotes and boxes are an integral part of the information. The reader is encouraged to go to these by clicking on the links.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Steen OBE studied at the Royal College of Music, was organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been chairman of both the RCM Society and the Friends of the V&A Museum. He is a trustee of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation and Anvil Arts, and Treasurer of The Open University.
PUCCINI’SLABOHÈME
A SHORT GUIDE TO A GREAT OPERA
The opera and its composer
Who’s who and what’s what
The interval: talking points
Act by act
THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER
The image of ‘Bohemians’1, students and their grisettes living in attics in the Latin Quarter of Paris, was established around 1850 by the writer Henry Mürger2 whose series of sketches, ‘Scènes de la vie de bohème’, was based on his personal experience of bohemian life.
Mürger might have been lost to history had not Puccini half a century later transmuted him into Mimì’s lover Rodolfo. La Bohème
