La Boheme

The life of a group of young artists in 19th century Paris. A love story between the poet Rodolfo and his neighbor Mimi, a poor seamstress.

Their relationship goes through ups and downs as they share the joys and challenges of an artist's life with their friends Marcello, Musetta, Schaunard and Colline. But tragic circumstances and the poverty of the times put their love to the test. A timeless story of love, loss and the pursuit of beauty.

Franco Zeffirelli's well-known, indeed famous production has been on the repertoire of the Vienna State Opera for more than half a century. Generations of opera-goers have followed the tragic and cheerful lives of the young people in an atmospheric and detailed stage setting. Zeffirelli tells the story of the tender budding of love between Mimì and Rodolfo with a view of the couple that is as touching as it is unpathetic, occasionally mixing in comedy - which is not too heavy-handed - and offering picturesque images in the crowd scenes in order to skillfully capture the winter mood in the third scene, which is also expressed musically. His setting of the tragic finale is a prime example of skillful restraint: we see people on stage whose suffering not only touches us, but hits us - there is no better way to capture Puccini's masterpiece in images.

Musically, Puccini captured the events in a complex and richly pictorial musical language that immediately captivates the audience. Here the hustle and bustle of the crowds, there the tender rapprochement of the lovers, then again the great happiness of love and just as much pain: a cosmos that constantly enchants and captivates the audience. For example, when Mimì sings of the dawning spring in her great aria in the first scene, Puccini lets the singing and the orchestra shine and takes the audience into Mimì's world; and when he has Rodolfo sing of his life as a poet, you are completely with the poet, in his poor but youthful and proud life. It is therefore hardly surprising that Thomas Mann also referred to the special qualities of this opera in his The Magic Mountain.

One of the biggest opera scandals in the Second Republic, the cancellation of the premiere of the current production of La bohème in 1963, was sparked by the prompter. The Italian singers, who were used to finding a maestro suggeritore, a kind of prompting sub-conductor, in the prompter's box, had also demanded one for their performances at the Vienna Opera. Karajan approved the engagement of such a maestro suggeritore, but the works council did not. As the two fronts became increasingly entrenched, it finally came to a scandal: the audience that had already attended the premiere had to be sent home again and the premiere of La bohème was postponed for a few days. An artistic affair has become a headline-generating, general topic of conversation.