Background on "Bohemia" and Bohème

Frequent patrons of the Festival might notice a trend in our recent programming. This is our third consecutive opera to reference “Bohemians” or Roma, a nomadic ethnic group originating from India that has faced centuries of persecution. In our 2021 and 2022 seasons, respectively, Il trovatore (Verdi/ Cammarano) and Carmen (Bizet/Meilhac and Halévy) both presented fictionalized Romani communities living on the fringes of society in Spain. Though “La bohème” literally translates to “The Bohemians,” Puccini and his librettists Illica and Giacosa didn’t write a story about the Roma, but about a different kind of Bohemian.

To start, the name “Bohemian” is actually a misnomer.

According to MerriamWebster’s Word History blog, the French named the Romani people “Bohémien” believing they came from the Bohemia region of present-day Czechia rather than India. These Roma lived in the poorer districts of Paris without creature comforts, showed little concern for their appearances, and shared a love of the arts. Their presence attracted attention from the French—both curiosity and scorn. “Bohémien” became a pejorative term for the Roma and for anyone else who embraced their way of life, including artists living in the Latin Quarter of Paris. French writers of the 19th century romanticized this “starving artist” lifestyle, such as Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of NotreDame), Honoré de Balzac (La Comédie humaine), and Henri Murger, whose Scènes de la vie de bohème directly inspired Puccini, Illica, and Giacosa’s opera.

You won’t hear a Bohemian influence in the music of La bohème (by way of India or Czechia), but the Bohemian lifestyle does come to bear on Puccini’s score. Puccini represents his own personal experience as a young starving artist by musically citing himself. The opening phrase of La bohème is directly lifted from Puccini’s own Capriccio sinfonico, a piece he composed to graduate from the Milan Conservatory. This musical reference reflects “the joy and exuberance of the discovery of art for the first time,” as Maestro Colaneri puts it. “The ‘bohème’ in La bohème for Puccini is not just the story matter, but also picking up these kinds of themes from these early pieces that represent his young life. It’s autobiographical in many ways.”