La Bohème - Book Discussion & Listening Party

Caledon Library Book of the Month Discussion and Listening Party
Book: Scenes from the Life of Bohemia by Henri Murger (English translation of Scènes de la Vie de Bohème)
Opera: La Bohème by Puccini
Sun, November 9, 1-3 pm slt
HG Wells Memorial Library, Caledon Wellsian
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Wellsian/235/239/31

Take the Caledon Train, or use the handy teleport from the Wellsian Hub
Or tune in at http://music.radioriel.org



"Who am I? I am a poet.
What do I do here? I Write.
And how do I live? I live
in my contented poverty,
as if a grand lord, I squander
odes and hymns of love.
In my dreams and reveries,
I build castles in the air,
where in spirit I am a millionaire."
(Act I of the opera, Rudolfo to Mimi on the occasion of their first meeting.)

A generation of young people who defied all social, political, and cultural boundaries - they embraced poverty; wore outrageous, colorful clothes; seemingly lived by the motto ‘love the one you’re with’; and generally left their parents scratching their heads and wondering where they went wrong. But this wasn’t the hippie generation of the 1960’s - it was the generation memorialized in Henry Murger's Scènes de la Vie de Bohème, originally published as a series of newspaper articles and based on the life he and his friends chose to live: the Bohemians of the 1840’s and 1850’s. More than any other, Murger influenced the youth of his generation to adopt the Bohemian lifestyle -- freedom, art, and pleasure, unrestricted by the societal conventions of the bourgeoisie.

While Murger’s book, a compilation of those articles, achieved some success and in fact developed something of a cult following, it was Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème -- an opera loosely based on that book -- that cemented Murger’s place in history. The opera, castigated by the critics of the day as too light-hearted and sentimental, has come to be regarded as a masterpiece and is surely Puccini’s best-known work.

Come join us at the HG Wells Memorial Library in Caledon Wellsian, to listen to the opera (streamed for us by our friends at Radio Riel) while we discuss both works, and their remarkable conjunction.

Copies of the book (in the original and in two English translations) may be had at the library, or found online at:

Scènes de la Vie de Bohème par Henry Murger
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18446

Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henri Murger
http://home.swbell.net/worchel/contents.htm

Scenes from the Life of Bohemia by Henri Murger
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=OeIOAAAAIAAJ


This event is sponsored by the Caledon Library, and produced by Radio Riel

Be sure to join us afterward for a Palm Court Tea at The Bashful Peacock, just across the way