La boheme

Composer: Puccini, Giacomo

Librettist/Text Author: Giacosa, Giuseppe

Librettist/Text Author: Illica, Luigi

Conductor: Karajan, Herbert von

Orchestra: Milan La Scala Orchestra

Chorus: Milan La Scala Chorus

Chorus Master: Benaglio, Roberto

Colline: Vinco, Ivo

Marcello: Panerai, Rolando

Mimi: Freni, Mirella

Musetta: Martino, Adriana

Rodolfo: Raimondi, Gianni

Schaunard: Maffeo, Gianni

Producer: Buttenstedt, Fritz

Set Designer: Haferung, Paul

Costume Designer: Escoffier, Marcel

Stage Director: Zeffirelli, Franco

Television Director: Semmelroth, Wilhelm

---

Date of Production: 1965

Playing Time: 01:44:32

Catalogue Number: A05003130

Libretto

La boheme

Synopsis

La boheme

---

One of the world's most beloved operas, La Boheme is, along with Puccini's Tosca and Madama Butterfly, one of the pillars of the Italian repertory. When it premiered in Turin on 1 February 1896, it was dismissed as "a momentary error". It wasn't until its first performance in Palermo that year that the opera scored a definitive success. This production of La Boheme scored a trio of "firsts": it was the first opera film to be produced by Unitel, the first music film conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and the first major film production by Franco Zeffirelli.

Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli's acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi as the star-crossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and orchestra of Milan's La Scala. The production is still considered today one of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera performance in the 20th century.