Thinking about "Bohemia", people usually imagine the high artistic society gathering in salons and having a pampered lifestyle. In the 19th century, this French word began to designate something else-extravagant and careless poverty among actors, artists, poets. In everyday speech, the word that can be translated as "gypsy", was introduced by Henri Murger – a talented writer who lived one half of his short life in his father's lodge and worked in small Parisian publishing houses, and was a representative of this community. Thanks to him, the life of bohemia began to be perceived as something extremely appealing.
Giacomo Puccini was the second example, who provided Bohemia with such an enviable reputation.
Half a century after the publication of Scènes de la vie de bohème novel by Murger, the composer used its skeleton story for the opera. Today, Puccini's "Bohemia"; is one of the most popular operas in the world. However, the Italian opera usually implies a whirlwind of passion, strong characters, dramatic clashes against the background of major historical events. But "Bohemia" doesn't contain anything like that, even though it is written by the Italian. It seems a very quiet, chamber piece, like an attic in Montmartre, where the opera characters live. This might be the most intimate and cozy Italian opera.
The performance in the Ural Opera is cozy and beautiful, like a Christmas card: Igor Ivanov, the artist, looked back at the first production sketches that took place in Turin in 1896. A quiet love story against a noisy holiday background, Alexander Lebedev, the stage director and citizen of Saints-Petersburg, presents the opera in a traditional way: "Bohemia" is set forth for us as Puccini and the carefree inhabitants of the Latin Quarter at the end of the XIX century would wish us to view it.
