Plot

The classic opera about falling into and out of love, friendship, and loss. Mimi and the poet Rudolfo, the painter Marcello and Musetta are the lovers; the musician Schaunard and philosopher Colline round out the set of friends living life rather close to the edge in Paris' Left Bank. The classic mix of comedy and tragedy has enchanted audiences ever since its premiere in 1896. Act I Christmas Eve finds the poet and painter freezing in their squalid attic apartment overlooking the rooftops of the Latin Quarter. They try keeping warm by burning the poet's unsold play manuscript. Colline, the philosopher enters, announcing that the apocalypse is on them because the pawn shops are closed. Just as the flames from the burning manuscript die completely, the musician Schaunard enters, bringing food, fuel for the fire, wine, and money for everybody -- he had a lucrative music lesson that apparently paid well. They resolve to drink at home, but eat out among the cafes and excitement of the Latin Quarter, when they are interrupted by a visit from the landlord. They manage to dodge paying the rent via a clever ruse, and then go down, leaving Rudolfo behind to finish up an article he's been writing. Enter Mimi, a neighbor from the floor below, who needs her candle relit. She seems ill and faints. Rudolfo falls in love with her right away, and the act ends with the two new lovers going to meet Rudolfo's friends. Act II at the Cafe Momus -- the friends reunite, and right away a second girlfriend (an ex girlfriend) enters with her new sugar daddy in tow. It's Musetta, Marcello's old flame, and there is a hilarious interplay as she insists that he can't live without her. She dumps the sugar daddy, adds the friends' cafe tab to her own for the old man to pay, and exits joyously with Marcello. Act III is maybe a month or two later. It's snowing at the gates of the city where there is an inn/alehouse off to one side. Mimi enters, coughing, obviously ill, looking for Marcello, who - with Musetta - is living at the inn. Mimi asks Marcello to help her -- Rudolfo has told her that he was finished with her -- she thinks he loves her, but he keeps pushing her away. He's actually inside the inn, and when he wakes up and looks for Marcello, Mimi hides and listens as Rudolfo confesses that yes, he loves Mimi, but is terribly afraid because he knows that she is sick and dying. Eventually, after he's spilled the whole thing unwittingly, he spots her and tries to comfort her while Marcello, hearing Musetta laughing, goes off in a jealous rage. Eventually, Mimi and Rudolfo patch things up temporarily, and Marcello and Musetta have a knock down dragout. Act IV back at the same squalid apartment. Rudolfo and Marcello are missing their girls, but perk up a bit when the other guys come back and begin some very funny horseplay. Right at the most riotous part, Musetta enters and tells them that Mimi is downstairs, barely able to walk. She's left her other boyfriend and want to return to Rudolfo, whom she truly loves. He gathers her up and comforts her -- Musetta and Marcello leave to get medicine and to sell some earrings to pay for a doctor, and Mimi tells Rudolfo, for the last time, that she will always love him. At the last, all the friends are there. Rudolfo gets up from Mimi's bedside to speak to Musetta and, while his back is turned, Mimi quietly dies. Schaunard notices it first, then later the rest of them. Rudolfo is the last to know. Heartbroken, he calls her name twice, and the curtain goes down on him weeping with her in his arms.