Santa Fe Opera Season 2019 – La Bohème

In celebration of the Santa Fe Opera we honor the tales of the 2019 season with a series of inspired style mosaics. Here, we introduce a mosaic for Giacomo Puccini’s LA BOHÈME with a collection of items that exemplify 19th-century Paris and the bohemian lifestyle of the time.

LA BOHÈME

Young, poor and consumed with love, six Bohemians lead charming and terrible lives in 19th-century Paris. Living in Latin Quarter garrets, they mingle with famous writers and artists at Café Momus, and find their places in a rapidly changing society.

It is Christmas Eve in Paris and Marcello is painting while Rodolfo writes. They have no firewood, so Rodolfo burns his manuscript for heat. Rodolfo’s roommates leave him to finish an article while they celebrate downstairs at Café Momus, but he is interrupted by his neighbor Mimì.

She requests a light as her candle has gone out, but becomes overtaken by coughing, and discovers that she has dropped her key.

While searching together, they exchange life stories – his as a poet and hers embroidering clothes – and they are already falling in love. As time flows, these Bohemians learn sometimes it is better to have loved and lost.