La Bohème

In Scenes of Bohemian Life, Henry Murger gives a definition of this artistic life intended to last and to shape literary imagination: bohemian is “every man who enters on an artistic career, without any other means of livelihood than his art itself.” The most striking representation of this lifestyle is given, beyond a shadow of a doubt, by Giacomo Puccini’s opera in four acts to an Italian libretto by Giacosa and Illica: La Bohème! Some of its arias, such as Che gelida manina (“What a cold little hand”) or Mi chiamano Mimì (“They call me Mimì”), became so famous that they created the legend of maudits artists, including  Rimbaud, Verlaine and Modigliani. But an echo of La Bohème, a real tribute, can be found in Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent, which  has dominated Broadway since the ‘90s with its rock guitars and tearful solos. Join Marcello, Mimì, Rodolfo, Musetta, and many other broke artists to the discovery of Latin Quarter’s mansards!