La Bohème

In the Parisian shared flat of Rodolfo, Marcello, Schaunard and Colline, the heating is rarely on and food is only served occasionally. But the atmosphere in the attic is excellent, because the four young artists and humanities scholars love their lives. They defy scarcity with imagination, cheekiness and sarcasm. And once they earn well, "they never find enough windows to throw out their money", writes Henri Murger in his influential episodic novel about the Bohemians, which became the basis for the opera.
The seamstress Mimì lives below the flat share. For her, poverty is no game, as she suffers from tuberculosis, which is exacerbated by her seemingly romantic living conditions. On Christmas Eve, she knocks on the door when Rodolfo is alone. A passionate affair begins, characterized by a longing for warmth in a cold world.
Giacomo Puccini sets the episodes from the Parisian subculture to music with the utmost precision: every gesture is reflected in the music, artfully blending the different atmospheres of a bustling city scene. The contradictions between the desire for independence and the actual material and emotional dependencies clash harshly. And at the same time, the dream of a simpler, happier life shimmers through the icy winter landscape - even in the production based on Chris Alexander, which has been popular since 1999.