From Gran Teatre del Liceu

Date: Sunday, March 25 at 2:15 pm
Running Time: 2 hours, 50 minutes including intermissions
Tickets: $20
Location: Mountain Cinema in the Doctorow Center for the Arts, Rte. 23A, Village of Hunter, NY
Information: 518-263-4702

From the mid-19th century onwards -- against the background of industrialization -- art became realistic, seeking to show things as they really were, rather than making them more amiable or more beautiful. An opera such as La Bohème, which talks of the fragile nature of happiness in a world of poverty, cold and disease, is an example of this trend.

In La Bohème, however, Verism becomes more sentimental and the brutality of social reality is depicted less crudely than elsewhere. Four young artists live out their everyday lives amid dreams and disappointments, waiting for the event that is to win them renown, but poverty and misfortune deprive the leading characters of the joy of love. The text and music relate all this with a pleasant melodramatic tenderness.