La Bohème
- 22/10/2026, from 19:30 to 22:15
- 04/11/2026, from 19:30 to 22:15
- Opera/Operetta
- Tickets
Details
La Bohème by Ruggero Leoncavallo | Oper Graz
Two composers, one subject – and a musical duel that made operatic history: when Giacomo Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo set Murger’s Bohème: Scenes of Parisian Life to music at almost the same time, it was Puccini’s version that ultimately triumphed. Yet Leoncavallo’s La Bohème remains an unjustly forgotten gem. It is high time to rediscover this “other Bohème” alongside its famous sister, under the musical direction of the young Italian conductor Daniela Musca.
Leoncavallo, with his strong affinity for literature, recognised the music-dramatic potential of Murger’s witty and spirited episodes and created a libretto which he offered to Puccini to set to music. Puccini, however, declined. When Leoncavallo began setting his own text to music a year later, he discovered that his rival and colleague was also working on a Bohème. The fact that Puccini was the first to present his work to the public – initially with only modest success – prevented Leoncavallo’s captivating musical portrait, with its sharp contrasts between humour and tragedy and its emphasis on the theatrical façade of the joie de vivre on display, from securing a lasting place in the repertoire.
With characters that are true to life and closely modelled on the literary source, the composer of Pagliacci succeeded in creating a far more veristic portrayal of the exuberant yet harsh living conditions of the Parisian artistic milieu. The “unknown Bohème” thus reveals itself as a moving alternative to the popular classic – one that need not fear comparison with its famous rival.
Opera in four acts
Libretto by the composer, based on Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème (1845–1851)
Concert performance in Italian with German surtitles
Public transport: Tram 1, 7 I Stop: Kaiser-Josef Platz/Opera
