The Bohemia

The cold of the night heightened my jitteriness – I was super excited to finally see La bohème by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini at the Metropolitan Opera. The twinkling lights of the plaza against the dark night sky was beautiful; we were in our own little lit bubble for the rest of the night. My ears drew me to the fountain situated in the center of the plaza. It was a water show that demanded to be photographed, especially as the background of pictures.

After a long photoshoot, it was time to enter the opera house. Once inside, I marveled at the white staircase draped in a rich red carpet. I felt like a movie star, walking on the red carpet, to see a show. Our seats were on the top level, the friends and family circle. Peering down at the entrance below was simply amazing.

I plopped down on a plush red seat and made myself comfortable. Heeding Professor Eversley’s words about the chandeliers, I kept a careful eye on them. When the performance was about to start, the exquisite light fixtures slowly rose and dimmed until there was no light left. The stage light brought the focus back to the center of the stage and the gold curtains were drawn up to reveal the interior of a house.

The first act of La bohème was relatively difficult to understand. The men who were all dressed in the same costumes made it hard to differentiate them. The only obvious characters were Marcello and Rodolfo, thanks to the smash musical Rent. Although I knew the other two characters, it was still really tough identifying them due to the distance between the seats and the stage. I tried my absolute best. The musical revealed Roger and Mimi’s love story bit by bit. In the opera, however, it was one big rush. Rodolfo and Mimi literally just met and they were professing their eternal love for each other five minutes later. Even though I was aware of the development, I was not prepared for the pace and sat there confused and dumbfounded.

The second act was very lively. The set was transformed into a buzzing, animated street with a restaurant neatly tucked into the ground floor of a building. Stairs were built directly onto the set itself. Musetta and her new lover’s entrance was very grand, featuring a handsome carriage drawn by a costumed donkey. The way the characters utilized the space of the set was clever: the bouts of craziness and chaos inside the restaurant spilled to the streets. It was an amazement to watch. I could see how Rent took this scene and turned it into a hectic, disorganized protest.

As much as I thought the set of the second act was astonishing, the third act was a masterpiece. The stage had been completely converted to a haunting winter wonderland. There was snow all over the stage and bits of snow fell from above. There was also another elevated space in the background designed for extras in pairs to bring a life and companionship feel to the act, since it was mainly about death and the destruction of love. The gloomy lighting and muted colors carefully prepped and set the stage for the final act.

We returned to the beginning of the play: the quarters of Marcello and Rodolfo. After all, a show must come full circle and Puccini did just that. Mimi’s death scene was puzzling. Everyone paid so much attention to her except for her death. As she lay dying on the bed, all the other characters are either away, or looking away. When Mimi is dead, no one notices. I thought that part was just absurd. And then the opera ended.

The music of the opera was perfectly in sync with the events unfolding on stage. It reflected the mood of the opera quite nicely. I tried to pay attention to Mimi’s light motif but that did not work out. I really enjoyed La bohème and I believe it will become one of my most cherished college memories.