La Bohème - Puccini | Freni, Raimondi, Panerai, Zeffirelli, von Karajan (La Scala 1965)

Composer: Giacomo Antonio Puccini
Librettist: Giuseppe Giacosa, and Luigi Illica
Premiere: 1 February 1896, Turin (Teatro Regio)
Language: Italian
Synopsis: https://www.opera-arias.com/puccini/la-boh%C3%A8me/synopsis/
Translation: English subtitles

Cast & Characters:
Mirella Freni (soprano) - Mimi
Gianni Raimondi (tenore) - Rodolfo
Rolando Panerai (baritono) - Marcello
Gianni Maffeo (baritono) - Schaunard
Ivo Vinko (basso) - Colline
Carlo Badioli (basso) - Benoit
Carlo Badioli (basso) - Alcindoro
Adriana Martino (soprano) - Musetta
Franco Ricciardi (tenore) - Parpignol

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Alla Scala
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Production and Set Design by Franco Zeffirelli
Costume Design by Marcel Escoffier
Artistic Supervision by Herbert von Karajan

La bohème is an opera in four acts, composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger, a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s. Although usually called a novel, it has no unified plot. Like the 1849 play by Murger and Théodore Barrière, the opera's libretto focuses on the relationship between Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death. Also like the play, the libretto combines two characters from the novel, Mimì and Francine, into a single Mimì character.

The world premiere of La bohème was in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by the 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini. Since then, La bohème has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. According to Operabase, it is the fourth most frequently performed opera worldwide.

In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a commemorative performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the performance was later released by RCA Victor on vinyl record, tape and compact disc. It is the only recording ever made of a Puccini opera by its original conductor.