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LIBRETTO: LA BOHÈME

An Opera in Four Acts

Libretto by
G. GIACOSA and L. ILLICA

English Version by
W. GRIST and P. PINKERTON

Music by
GIACOMO PUCCINI

CHARACTERS

RUDOLPH (a poet) Tenor
SCHAUNARD (a musician) Baritone
BENOIT (a landlord) Bass
MIMI Soprano
PARPIGNOL Tenor
MARCEL (a painter) Baritone
COLLINE (a philosopher) Bass
ALCINDORO (a councilor of state) Bass
MUSETTA Soprano
CUSTOM-HOUSE SERGEANT Bass

Students, Work Girls, Citizens, Shopkeepers, Street Vendors, Soldiers,
Restaurant Waiters, Boys, Girls, etc.

TIME ABOUT 1830—IN PARIS

SYNOPSIS

The opera is founded on Henri Murger's book "La Vie de Bohème."

ACT I

Rudolph and Marcel are sitting in the latter's attic-studio in the Quartier Latin, in Paris. Marcel is absorbed in his painting. The day is cold. They have no money to buy coal. Marcel takes a chair to burn it, when Rudolph remembers that he has a manuscript which has been rejected by the publishers and lights a fire with that instead. Colline enters, looking abject and miserable. He had gone out to pawn his books, but nobody wanted them. Their friend, Schaunard, however, had better luck. He comes bringing fuel and provisions. They all prepare their meal, when the landlord enters and demands the payment of his rent. The friends offer him a glass of wine and turn him out amidst joking and laughter. After their gay repast they separate and Rudolph remains alone writing.

A knock is heard at the door and Mimi, a little seamstress, who lives on the same floor, appears and asks Rudolph to give her a match to light her candle. As she is about to go out, she falls in a faint. Rudolph gives her wine and restores her to consciousness. She tells him that she suffers from consumption. Rudolph is struck by her beauty and her delicate hands. She notices that she has lost her key and whilst they search for it their candles are extinguished. As they grope on the floor in the dark, Rudolph finds the key and puts it in his pocket. Their hands meet and Rudolph tries to warm her hands and tells her all about his life. Mimi confides her struggles to him and their conversation soon turns upon their love for each other.

ACT II

Rudolph's friends have repaired to their favorite Café. It is Christmas Eve and everyone is in festive spirits. All the shops are bright and displaying their goods. Hawkers offer their goods for sale in the streets. Rudolph and Mimi are seen entering a milliner's where Rudolph is to buy her a new hat. Colline, Schaunard and Marcel take their seats in front of the Café, where a table has been prepared for them. Rudolph introduces Mimi to his friends. Musetta, Marcel's flame, with whom he has quarrelled, now enters with Alcindoro. Marcel is deeply moved when he sees her. Musetta notices this and sends Alcindoro on an errand. Whilst he is away, she makes peace with Marcel. The friends find that they have not sufficient money to pay for their supper, so they carry off Musetta and leave their bills to be paid by Alcindoro.

ACT III

Months have elapsed, bringing joy and misery to Rudolph and Mimi. Rudolph loves Mimi passionately, but is consumed with jealousy. On a wintry day, Marcel is seen leaving a tavern near the Gates of Paris. He meets Mimi; she looks pale and haggard. She asks Marcel to help her and tells him of Rudolph's love and jealousy, explaining that she must leave him. Rudolph now comes upon the scene and not seeing Mimi tells of all the miseries of their lives; how he loves her and believes her to be dying of consumption. Mimi's cough betrays her and although she says good-bye to Rudolph they find they cannot part and determine to await the spring. Meanwhile Musetta and Marcel have a violent quarrel.

ACT IV

Marcel and Rudolph are now living together in their attic-studio. Musetta and Mimi have left them. They are seemingly working, but their thoughts wander towards the women they love. Schaunard and Colline enter with rolls and a herring for their meal. They have a wild time and are dancing and singing when Musetta enters and tells them that Mimi is outside so weak and ill that she can go no further. They make up a bed on the couch for her and bring her in. She clings to Rudolph and implores him not to leave her. Mimi reconciles Marcel and Musetta. Musetta tells her old friends that Mimi is dying and gives them her earrings to sell, asking them to get a doctor for Mimi. They all go out leaving Rudolph alone with Mimi. He holds her in his arms and recalls their love. Mimi is seized with a fit of coughing and falls back in a faint. Musetta returns with medicine. Mimi regains consciousness and turning to Rudolph tells him of her love. Musetta falls upon her knees in prayer and Mimi passes away in Rudolph's arms.

_…rain or dust, cold or heat, nothing stops these bold adventurers.

Their existence of every day is a work of genius, a daily problem which they always contrive to solve with the aid of bold mathematics.

When want presses them, abstemious as anchorites—but, if a little fortune falls into their hands, see them ride forth on the most ruinous fancies, loving the fairest and youngest, drinking the oldest and best wines, and not finding enough windows whence to throw their money; then—the last crown dead and buried—they begin again to dine at the table d'hôte of chance, where their cover is always laid; smugglers of all the industries which spring from art; in chase, from morning till night, of that wild animal which is called the crown.

"Bohemia" has a special dialect, a distinct jargon of its own. This vocabulary is the hell of rhetoric and the paradise of neologism_.

A gay life; yet a terrible one!

(Il. MURGER, preface to "Vie de Bohème")[1]

[Footnote 1: Rather than follow MURGER'S novel step by step, the authors of the present libretto, both for reasons of musical and dramatic effect, have sought to derive inspiration from the French writer's admirable preface.

Although they have faithfully portrayed the characters, even displaying a certain fastidiousness as to sundry local details; albeit in the scenic development of the opera they have followed Murger's method of dividing the libretto into four separate acts, in the dramatic and comic episodes they have claimed that ample and entire freedom of action, which, rightly or wrongly, they deemed necessary to the proper scenic presentment of a novel the most free, perhaps, in modern literature.

Yet, in this strange book, if the characters of each person therein stand out clear and sharply defined, we often may perceive that one and the same temperament bears different names, and that it is incarnated, so to speak, in two different persons. Who cannot detect in the delicate profile of one woman the personality both of Mimi and of Francine? Who, as he reads of Mimi's "little hands, whiter than those of the Goddess of Ease," is not reminded of Francine's little muff?

The authors deem it their duty to point out this identity of character. It has seemed to them that these two mirthful, fragile, and unhappy creatures in this comedy of Bohemian life might haply figure as one person, whose name should not be Mimi, not Francine, but "the Ideal.">[

ACT I

"…Mimi was a charming girl specially apt to appeal to Rudolph, the poet and dreamer. Aged twenty-two, she was slight and graceful. Her face reminded one of some sketch of high-born beauty; its features had marvellous refinement.

"The hot, impetuous blood of youth coursed through her veins, giving a rosy hue to her clear complexion that had the white velvety bloom of the camellia.

"This frail beauty allured Rudolph. But what wholly served to enchant him were Mimi's tiny hands, that, despite her household duties, she contrived to keep whiter even than the Goddess of Ease."

ACT I

IN THE ATTIC

Spacious window, from which one sees an expanse of snow-clad roofs. On left, a fireplace, a table, small cupboard, a little book-case, four chairs, a picture easel, a bed, a few books, many packs of cards, two candlesticks. Door in the middle, another on left.

Curtain rises quickly

RUDOLPH and MARCEL. RUDOLPH looks pensively out of the window. MARCEL works at his painting, "The Passage of the Red Sea," with hands nipped with cold, and warms them by blowing on them from time to time, often changing position on account of the frost.

MAR. (seated, continuing to paint)
This Red Sea passage feels as damp and chill to me
As if adown my back a stream were flowing.

(Goes a little way back from the easel to look at the picture.)

But in revenge a Pharaoh will I drown.

(Turning to his work.)

And you? (to RUDOLPH)

RUD. (pointing to the tireless stove)
Lazily rising, see how the smoke
From thousands of chimneys floats upward!
And yet that stove of ours
No fuel seems to need, the idle rascal,
Content to live in ease, just like a lord!

MAR. 'Tis now a good, long while since we paid his lawful wages.

RUD. Of what use are the forests all white under the snow?

MAR. Now Rudolph, let me tell you
A fact that overcomes me,
I'm simply frozen!

RUD. (approaching MARCEL)
And I, Marcel, to be quite candid,
I've no faith in the sweat of my brow.

MAR. All my fingers are frozen
Just as if they'd been touching that iceberg,
Touching that block of marble, the heart of false Musetta.

(Heaves a long sigh, laying aside his palette and brushes, and ceases painting.)

RUD. Ah! love's a stove consuming a deal of fuel!

MAR. Too quickly.

RUD. Where the man does the burning.

MAR. And the woman the lighting.

RUD. While the one turns to ashes.

MAR. So the other stands and watches.

RUD. Meanwhile, in here we're frozen.

MAR. And we're dying of hunger.

RUD. A fire must be lighted.

MAR. (seizing a chair and about to break it up)
I have it,
This crazy chair shall save us!

(RUDOLPH energetically resists MARCEL'S project.)

RUD. (joyous at an idea that has seized him)
Eureka!

(Runs to the table and from below it lifts a bulky manuscript.)

MAR. You've found it?

RUD. Yes. When genius is roused ideas come fast in flashes.

MAR. (pointing to his picture)
Let's burn up the "Red Sea."

RUD. No: think what a stench 'twould occasion!
But my drama, my beautiful drama shall give us warmth.

MAR. (with comic terror)
Intend you to read it?
Twill chill us!

RUD. No. The paper in flame shall be burning,
The soul to its heaven returning. (with tragic emphasis)
Great loss! but the world yet must bear it,
When Rome is in peril!

MAR. Great soul!

RUD. (_giving MARCEL a portion of the MS._)
Here, take the first act.

MAR. Well?

RUD. Tear it.

MAR. And light it.

(RUDOLPH strikes a flint on steel, lights a candle, and goes to the stove with MARCEL; together they set fire to a part of the MS. thrown into the fireplace; then both draw up their chairs and sit down, delightedly warming themselves.)

RUD. How joyous the rays!

MAR. How cheerful the blaze!

(The door at the back opens violently, and COLLINE enters frozen and nipped up, stamping his feet, and throwing angrily on the table a bundle of books tied up in a handkerchief.)

COL. Surely miracles apocalyptic are dawning!
For Christmas eve they honor by allowing no pawning!

(Checks himself, seeing a fire in the stove.)

See I a fire here?

RUD. (to COLLINE) Gently, it is my drama.

COL. In blazes!
I find it very sparkling.

RUD. Brilliant! (the fire languishes)

COL. Too short its phrases.

RUD. Brevity's deemed a treasure.

COL. (taking the chair from RUDOLPH)
Your chair pray give me, author.

MAR. These foolish entr'actes merely make us shiver. Quickly!

RUD. (taking another portion of the MS.) Here is the next act.

MAR. (to COLLINE) Hush! not a whisper.

(RUDOLPH tears up the MS. and throws it into the fireplace; the flames revive. COLLINE moves his chair nearer and warms his hands. RUDOLPH is standing near the two with the rest of the MS.)

COL. How deep the thought is!

MAR. Color how true!

RUD. In that blue smoke my drama is dying
Full of its love-scenes ardent and new.

COL. A leaf see crackle!

MAR. Those were all the kisses.

RUD. (throwing the remaining MS. on the fire)
Three acts at once I desire to hear.

COL. Only the daring can dream such visions.

RUD., MAR. and COL. Dreams that in flame soon disappear.

(Applaud enthusiastically; the flame diminishes.)

MAR. Ye gods! see the leaves well-nigh perished.

COL. How vain is the drama we cherished.

MAR. They crackle! they curl up! they die!

MAR. and COL. The author—down with him, we cry.

(From the middle door two boys enter, carrying provisions and fuel; the three friends turn, and with a surprised cry, seize the provisions and place them on the table. COLLINE carries the wood to the fireplace.)

RUD. Fuel!

MAR. Wine, too!

COL. Cigars!

RUD. Fuel!

MAR. Bordeaux!

RUD., MAR. and COL. The abundance of a feast day
We are destined yet to know.

(Exeunt the two boys)

(Enter SCHAUNARD.)

SCH. (triumphantly throwing some coins on the ground)
Such wealth in the balance
Outweighs the Bank of France.

COL. (assisting RUDOLPH and MARCEL to pick up the coins)
Then, take them—then, take them.

MAR. (incredulously) Tin medals? Inspect them.

SCH. (showing one to MARCEL)
You're deaf then, or blear-eyed?
What face do they show?

RUD. (bowing)
King Louis Philippe: to my monarch I bow.

RUD., MAR., SCH. and COL. Shall King Louis Philippe at our feet thus lie low?

(SCHAUNARD will go on recounting his good luck, but the others continue to arrange everything on the table.)

SCH. Now I'll explain.
This gold has—or rather silver—
Has its own noble story.

MAR. First the stove to replenish.

COL. So much cold has he suffered,

SCH. 'Twas an Englishman, then—
Lord, or mi-lord, as may be—
Desired a musician.

MAR. (throwing COLLINE'S books from the table)
Off! Let us furnish the table.

SCH. I flew to him.

RUD. Where is the food?

COL. There.

MAR. Here.

SCH. I pay my homage.
Accepted, I enquire—

COL. (preparing the viands on the table while RUDOLPH lights the
other candle)
Here's cold roast beef.

MAR. And savory patty.

SCH. When shall we start the lessons?
When I seek him, in answer to my question,
"When shall we start the lessons?"
He tells me "Now—at once.
Just look there,"
Showing a parrot on the first floor, hung, then continues:
"You must play until that bird has ceased to live."
Thus it befell:
Three days I play and yell.

RUD. Brilliantly lightens the room into splendor.

MAR. Here are the candles.

COL. What lovely pastry!

SCH. Then on the servant girl
Try all the charms wherewith I'm laden;
I fascinate the maiden.

MAR. With no tablecloth eat we—

RUD. (taking a paper from his pocket) An idea!

COL. and MAR. The Constitutional.

RUD. (unfolding the paper)
Excellent paper!
One eats a meal and swallows news at the same time!

SCH. With parsley I approach the bird,
His beak Lorito opens;
Lorito's wings outspread,
Lorito opens his beak,
A little piece of parsley gulps—
As Socrates, is dead!

(SCHAUNARD, seeing that no one is paying any attention to him, seizes
COLLINE as he passes with a plate.)

COL. Who?

SCH. (pettishly) The devil fly away with you entirely!

(seeing the rest in the act of eating the cold pastry)

What are you doing?

(With solemn gesture, extending his hand over the pastry)

No! dainties of this kind
Are but the stored-up fodder
Saved for the morrow,
Fraught with gloom and sorrow, (clearing the table)
To dine at home on the day of Christmas vigil,
While the Quartier Latin embellishes
Its ways with dainty food and tempting relishes.
Meanwhile the smell of savory fritters
The old street fills with fragrant odor.
There singing joyously, merry maidens hover,
Having for echo each a student lover.

(RUDOLPH locks the door; then all go to the table and pour out wine.)

RUD., MAR. and COL. 'Tis the gladsome Christmas Eve.

SCH. A little of religion, comrades, I pray;
Within doors drink we, but we dine away.

(Two knocks are heard at the door.)

BEN. (from without) 'Tis I.

MAR. Who is there?

BEN. 'Tis Benoit.

MAR. 'Tis the landlord is knocking!

SCH. Bolt the door quickly!

COL. (calling towards the door) No! There is no one!

SCH. 'Tis fastened!

BEN. Give me a word, pray!

SCH. (opening the door, after consulting with his friends) At once.

BEN. (entering smilingly, showing a paper to MARCEL) The rent!

MAR. (with great cordiality) Hallo! give him a seat, friends!

BEN. Do not trouble, I beg you.

SCH. (with gentle firmness, obliging BENOIT to sit down) Sit down!

MAR. (offering BENOIT a glass of wine) Some Bordeaux?

RUD. Your health!

BEN. Thank you.

COL. Your health!

SCH. Drink up!

RUD. Good health! (all drink)

BEN. (to MARCEL, putting down his glass and showing his paper.)
'Tis the quarter's rent I call for.

MAR. (ingenuously) Glad to hear it.

BEN. And therefore—

SCH. (interrupting) Another tipple? (fills up the glasses)

BEN. Thank you.

RUD. Your health!

COL. Your health!

RUD., MAR., SCH. and COL. (all touching BENOIT'S glass)
Drink we all your health, sir! (all drink)

BEN. (resuming, to MARCEL)
To you I come, as the quarter now is ended;
You have promised,

MAR. To keep it I intended. (Shows BENOIT the money on the table.)

RUD. (aside to MARCEL) Art mad?

SCH. (aside to MARCEL) What do you—

MAR. (to BENOIT, without noticing the two)
Hast seen it? Then give your care a respite,
And join our friendly circle.
Tell me how many years
Boast you of, my dear sir?

BEN. My years! Spare me, I pray.

RUD. Our own age, less or more?

BEN. (protesting) Much more, very much more.

(While they make BENOIT talk, they fill up his glass immediately it is empty.)

COL. He says 'tis less or more.

MAR. (mischievously, in a low voice)
T'other evening at Mabille
I caught him in a passage of love.

BEN. (uneasily) Me!

MAR. At Mabille. T'other evening
I caught you. Deny?

BEN. By chance 'twas.

MAR. (in a flattering tone) She was lovely!

BEN. (half drunk, suddenly) Ah! very.

SCH. Old rascal!

RUD. Old rascal!

COL. Vile seducer!

SCH. Old rascal!

MAR. He's an oak tree. He's a cannon.

RUD. He has good taste, then?

BEN. (laughing) Ha, ha!

MAR. Her hair was curly auburn.

COL. Old knave!

MAR. With ardent speed leaped he joyous to her embraces.

BEN. (with increasing exultation) Old am I, but robust yet.

RUD., SCH. and COL. Ardent with joy he sprang to her embraces.

MAR. To him she yields her woman's love and truth.

BEN. (in a very confidential tone)
Bashful was I in youth,
Now somewhat am I altered.
Well, what I like myself …
Must know that my one delight …
Is a merry damsel,—and small,
I do not ask a whale, nor a world-map to study,
Nor, like a full moon,
A face round and ruddy;
But leanness, downright leanness, No! No!
Lean women's claws oftentimes are scratchy,
Their temper somewhat catchy,
Full of aches, too, and mourning,
As my wife is my warning.

(MARCEL bangs his fist down on the table and rises; the others follow his example, BENOIT looking on in bewilderment.)

MAR. A wife possessing!
Yet thoughts impure confessing.

SCH. and COL. Foul shame!

RUD. His vile pollution empoisons our honest abode.

SCH. and COL. Hence!

MAR. With perfume we must fumigate!

COL. Drive him forth, the reprobate!

SCH. Morality offended hence expels you!

(BENOIT staggeringly rises, and tries in vain to speak.)

BEN. But say—I say!

MAR. Be silent!

COL. Be silent!

RUD. Be silent!

(They surround BENOIT and gradually push him to the door.)

BEN. Sirs, I beg you!

MAR., SCH. and COL. Be silent, out, your lordship! Hence away!

RUD., MAR., SCH. and COL. Wish we your lordship a pleasant Christmas
Eve. Ah!

(They push BENOIT outside the door.)

MAR. (locking the door) I have paid the last quarter!

SCH. In the Quartier Latin
Momus awaits!

MAR. Long live the spender!

SCH. We'll the booty divide!

RUD. We'll divide!

COL. We'll divide! (they divide the money on the table)

MAR. (holding out a cracked mirror to COLLINE)
Beauty is a gift heaven descended,
Now you are rich, to decency pay tribute.
Bear! have your mane attended!

COL. The first chance I can find,
I will make acquaintance with a beard eraser!
So guide me to the monstrous outrage of a barber's weapon.
Let's go!

SCH. We go!

MAR. and COL. We go!

RUD. I stay here, finish I must the article for my new journal,
"Beaver"!

MAR. Be quick then!

RUD. Five minutes only, I know well the work!

COL. We'll await you at the porter's lodge!

MAR. Delay, and you'll hear the chorus!

RUD. Five minutes only!

SCH. You must cut short the Beaver's growing tale!

(RUDOLPH takes a light from the table and goes to open the door: the others go out and descend the staircase.)

MAR. (from without) Look to the staircase! keep well to the handrail!

RUD. (on the landing near the open door holding up the candle) Go slowly!

COL. How plaguing dark 'tis!

SCH. May the porter be damned!

(The noise of someone falling is heard.)

COL. I have tumbled!

RUD. Colline, are you dead yet?

COL. (from the bottom of the staircase) Not this time!

MAR. Come quickly!

(RUDOLPH shuts the door, puts down the light, clears a space at the table for pens and paper, then sits down and commences to write, after putting out the other candle.)

RUD. I'm out of humor! (A timid knock is heard at the door.) Who's there?

MIMI. (from without) Pardon!

RUD. 'Tis a lady!

MIMI. Excuse me, my candle's gone out!

RUD. (running to open the door) Is it?

MIMI. (standing on the threshold with an extinguished candle and a
key)
Pray, would you—

RUD. Pray be seated a moment.

MIMI. No, I thank you.

RUD. I beg you enter.

(MIMI enters, but is seized with a fit of coughing.)

RUD. Are you not well?

MIMI. No! Nothing!

RUD. You are quite pale!

MIMI. (coughing) My breath—'tis the staircase—

(Swoons, and RUDOLPH has hardly time to support her and place her on a chair. She lets fall her candlestick and key.)

RUD. What can I do to aid her?

(Fetches some water, and sprinkles her face.)

Ah! this! How very pale her face is! (Mimi revives) Do you feel better?

MIMI. Yes.

RUD. Here 'tis very chilly.
Nearer the fire be seated an instant.
(conducting her to a chair near the tire)
A little wine?

MIMI. Thank you.

RUD. (giving her a glass and pouring out some wine) For you.

MIMI. Not so much, please!

RUD. Like this?

MIMI. Thank you. (she drinks)

RUD. How lovely a maiden.

MIMI. Now please allow me to light my candle, I'm feeling much better.

RUD. What, so quickly?

(RUDOLPH lights the candle and gives it to MIMI.)

MIMI. Thank you. Now, good evening.

RUD. So, good evening.

(Accompanies her to the door, and then returns quickly to his work.)

MIMI. (re-entering, stops on the threshold)
Oh! how stupid! How stupid!
The key of my poor chamber,
Where can I have left it?

RUD. Come, stand not in the doorway:
Your candle is flickering in the wind.

(Mimi's light goes out.)

MIMI. Good gracious! Please light it just once more!

(RUDOLPH runs with his candle, but, as he nears the door, his light, too, is blown out, and the room remains in darkness.)

RUD. Oh, dear! Now there's mine gone out, too!

MIMI. Ah! and the key—where can it be?

(Groping about, she reaches the table and deposits the candlestick.)

RUD. What a nuisance! (He finds himself near the door and fastens it.)