PUCCINI'S LA BOHEME'

Evening Star, Issue 19262, 29 May 1926, Page 15

PUCCINI'S LA BOHEME'

Mini!, ilio sad little heroine of Ruecini’s lovely opera, is fine ol the most pathetic figures in the world of tragedy. She is Bohemian to her linger lips, and hers “a gay life, yet a terrible one,” to quote turgor, who wrote the novel ‘Vie Dp Boheme,’ from which Bmrini drew his libretto and opera. Mirthful, fragile, dying unhappy. Mimi. is there anyone who hoars it lelt unmoved by her sad, brief life story? Almost everyone who has been abroad has tasted a sonpeou of the life ol Bohemia. Tho tourist, goes to Montmartre, and just touches tho outer circle oi these gay, reckless Dfcrisians. Bohemia has n special dialect, a distinct jargon oi its own. This vocabulary is the hell ol rhetoric and the paradise of neologism. Rain, dust, cold, heat, nothing stops these reckless adventurers. When want presses them, abstemious as anchorites, hut if a little fortune falls into their hands see them rule forth on tho most ruinous fancies, loving tho fairest and drinking the oldest, and best of wines, only to return when Die last sou is spent to their former lives of meagre food and Inol and feverish, highly-strung excitement. All tho music is beautiful, and it is difficult to select one’s favorite from the many appealing arias. The melody of Rudolph’s opening number runs throughout the play and haunts one in many leisure hours. Then comes Mimi's ami Rudolph's duet, a wealth of beautiful music, fluctuating between lento, andante moderate, and agitato, and finally bursting into ‘Che Gclida Manina’ (Your tiny hand is fror.cn). that glorious solo immortalised by Caruso, and possibly one of the finest excerpts he ever sang. .Muni's is a lighter solo and plaintive reply. ‘.Mi Chiamano Mimi’ (They call me Mimi). reveals to him her miserable existence and sickness. Tbe latter part of her song, taken andante mnlto sostenuto. is best known to the genera! public, and possesses a rich flowing melody. The finale of the first act is glorious music, culminating in the concerted voices of Rudolph ami Mimi, their last note, ‘Amor,’ taken in ('■ all. by Mimi, and held until it dies away. The second act opens with a glimpse of tho Vie De Boheme, and one sees a vast, motley crowd and the Cafe Momus. Into this act comes a medley of many voices in magnificent coneerted numbers. The best known song in the opera, ‘ Quando Me’n Vo.’ sung by light-hearted Musette, comes into this act, with its pretty haunting wait/, melody. The third aef brings grief and sorrow into Mimi's and Rudolph's lives. Ibis love for her was a jealous, fantastic, weird, hysterical love, and their lives together were a veritable hell upon earth. Yet amid all their tempestuous strife they mutually agreed to pause for (he solace afforded by a night of love; mid then came the dawn ami more battle, driving Love terrorstricken away. Thus did they live if life it was. It is in this net that Mimi sings her soulful andante, ‘ Addio,’ the wailing harmonics assimilating with the words of the unhappy girl. Tbe last act closes the pathetic history of poor little Mimi, the music becomes passmnate and forte, the story falters, and Mimi dies. After a. long separation Mimi becomes very ill. and visits Rudolph; from her entrance to the end of the opera the music is agitato, passionate, and brimful of sadness. Mimi's voice is faint and exhausted. and her one wish is to die near Rudolph. The most poignant moment of all is when she finally croons tho words that Rudolph sang to her 'when first they met, ‘Che Gclida Mauina ’-—the tiny frozen hands that had so enchanted him. The motive slowly dies away till the end, with Rudolph’s last cry of anguish, when the feeble spark of lifo flickers out of the poor, undermined little Boheme,