Editing La bohème (section)

==Origin of the story==
[[File:Rodolfo from La Boheme (1896).jpg|thumb|upright|Rodolfo, costume design by Adolfo Hohenstein for the premiere at the [[Teatro Regio (Turin)|Teatro Regio]], 1896]]
[[File:La Boheme Costume Mimi.jpg|thumb|Mimì's costume for the premiere]]

As credited on its title page, the libretto of ''La bohème'' is based on [[Henri Murger]]'s 1851 novel, ''[[La Vie de Bohème|Scènes de la vie de bohème]]'', a collection of vignettes portraying young [[Bohemianism|bohemians]] living in Paris in the 1840s. Although often called a novel, the book has no unified plot. Like the 1849 play drawn from the book by Murger and [[Théodore Barrière]], the opera's libretto focuses on the relationship between Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death. Also like the play, the libretto combines two characters from the novel, Mimì and Francine, into the single character of Mimì. Early in the composition stage Puccini was in dispute with the composer [[Ruggero Leoncavallo]], who said that he had offered Puccini a completed libretto and felt that Puccini should defer to him. Puccini responded that he had had no idea of Leoncavallo's interest and that having been working on his own version for some time, he felt that he could not oblige him by abandoning the opera. Leoncavallo completed [[La bohème (Leoncavallo)|his own version]] in which Marcello was sung by a tenor and Rodolfo by a baritone. It was not as successful as Puccini's and is now rarely performed.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|first=Colin|last=Kendell|title=The Complete Puccini: The Story of the World's Most Popular Operatic Composer|publisher=Amberley Publishing|date=2012|asin=B0B2578RCL}}</ref>

Much of the libretto is original. Major sections of acts two and three are the librettists' invention, with only a few passing references to incidents and characters in Murger. Most of acts one and four follow the book, piecing together episodes from various chapters. The final scenes in acts one and four—the scenes with Rodolfo and Mimì—resemble both the play and the book. The story of their meeting closely follows chapter 18 of the book, in which the two lovers living in the garret are not Rodolphe and Mimì at all, but rather Jacques and Francine. The story of Mimì's death in the opera draws from two different chapters in the book, one relating Francine's death and the other relating Mimì's.{{sfn|Groos|Parker|1986|p=1}}

The published libretto includes a note from the librettists briefly discussing their adaptation. Without mentioning the play directly, they defend their conflation of Francine and Mimì into a single character: "Chi può non confondere nel delicato profilo di una sola donna quelli di Mimì e di Francine?" ("Who cannot confuse in the delicate profile of one woman the personality both of Mimì and of Francine?"). At the time, the book was in the public domain, Murger having died without heirs, but rights to the play were still controlled by Barrière's heirs.<ref name="Grove">[[Julian Budden]]: "''La bohème''", ''[[Grove Music Online]]'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed 23 November 2008), [http://www.grovemusic.com (subscription access)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/ |date=16 May 2008 }}</ref>