“Oh, come è bello e morbido!”: Exposing the Strangeness of Puccini’s La Boheme

Location

Science Center, A262

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-24-2015 1:30 PM

End Date

4-24-2015 2:30 PM

Abstract

For the past century, Puccini’s La Boheme has existed comfortably in the popular operatic repertoire as a love story of tragic loss. In my project, I take a critical look at the elements that surround La Boheme—its source novel, the opera itself, and its place in operatic history—to destabilize this pervasive understanding of the opera as a narrative of naive romance and youthful friendship. In doing so, I further explore the strangeness of this ever-popular opera by analyzing its nonconformity to the conventions of the Italian operatic repertoire and the verismo genre.

Notes

Session 1, Panel 7 - Generative Cases: New Considerations of Puccini, Lewis Carroll, and J.M. Coetzee
Moderator: James O’Leary, Assistant Professor of Musicology

Full text thesis available here.

Major

Comparative Literature

Advisor(s)

Ellen Sayles, Office of the Dean of Studies

Project Mentor(s)

Jed Deppman, Comparative Literature
James O’Leary, Musicology

April 2015

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Apr 24th, 1:30 PM Apr 24th, 2:30 PM

“Oh, come è bello e morbido!”: Exposing the Strangeness of Puccini’s La Boheme

Science Center, A262

For the past century, Puccini’s La Boheme has existed comfortably in the popular operatic repertoire as a love story of tragic loss. In my project, I take a critical look at the elements that surround La Boheme—its source novel, the opera itself, and its place in operatic history—to destabilize this pervasive understanding of the opera as a narrative of naive romance and youthful friendship. In doing so, I further explore the strangeness of this ever-popular opera by analyzing its nonconformity to the conventions of the Italian operatic repertoire and the verismo genre.