Puccini: Three Operatic Operas

Bohemios was based on Henry Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème the same source for the operas of both Puccini and Leoncavallo.At its première in 1904 the Chorus of bohemians in Bohemios received such a rapturous response from the audience that three encores were demanded. The piece was performed an average of nine hundred times per year in its first twenty years and a fully operatic version was later produced. Amadeo Vives was a composer conductor and teacher of music in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was a choirmaster of renown and composer of many serious works as well as operettas and zarzuelas of which Bohemios was one of his best works. He broughtto zarzuela a raised standard of harmony Orchestration and taste and he suffered the frustrations of people of serious ambition whose lighter works are the most beloved and remembered.