The opera is a shocking story of the love of Rodolfo and Mimi. Rodolfo, who is struggling with his three friends in a cold attic room, wants to break up with Mimi because the poor sewing girl is terminally ill and she can’t provide the right conditions for her. So you want to force her to find herself a wealthy lover. At the end of the play, Mimi returns to her love room in the attic. He dies where he was happiest.
The La Bohème is probably the most popular opera by Puccini. This blend of passion, tragedy and humor, coupled with Puccini’s colorful, sensual music, proved irresistible. Though the critics greeted him at the premiere, Puccini himself did not consider him his best work, and Debussy skeptically remarked on how much an Italian would know about French life, French art. The latter statement does not make much sense, as Puccini’s libretto was based on the France novel by Murger Scènes de la vie de Bohème in , even though the second and third acts of the opera were full of ideas from librettists and the composer. Eventually, the spectators, who celebrated the work from the first moment, became right.
Puccini’s representative, Ricordi, was a great businessman and conscientious agent who supported his favorite with a unique marketing ploy. He sold the rights to one of Verdi's already run operas by obliging them to purchase one of Puccini's even lesser-known operas.
