Description: This cultural history of La Bohème traces its rise to global fame. It demonstrates how the opera's prominence in popular culture, the inventiveness of its directors and performers, and its enduring themes of gender, poverty, and nostalgia have captured audiences' imagination for more than 120 years.
Review Quotes: "[Wilson's] own love for & insight into the work, & indeed into Puccini's individual approach to music drama, shine out...she deftly identifies the strong reasons why connoisseurs continue to delight in the piece. [She] is scrupulous in addressing still-prevalent negative attitudes fully and fairly, while ultimately refuting them...measured and observant." -- Opera Magazine
"Wilson's exploration of La bohème takes the reader on a thoroughly fascinating journey, which starts from an approachable, jargon-free reading of the opera and its cultural context, and then travels from late nineteenth-century Paris, where the opera is set, through diverse times and places.ÂBalancing admirably between documents and interpretation, and paying due attention to popular culture and conceptual staging, this book is a model in its kind, and will engage readers who are looking for an entry point into a beloved masterpiece as well as those who are already familiar with La bohème and in search of new insights and perspectives." -- Francesco Izzo, Professor of Music University of Southampton and General Editor of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi"Wilson is one of a few truly innovative Puccini scholars writing today. In this fascinating new book she explains how -- against many odds and contrary to the expectations of early critics -- La bohème became the work that still speaks to all of us, across generations and regardless of national, social and cultural boundaries. Her book is peppered with fascinating responses to Puccini's opera, from directors, critics and audiences. If we are to understand the success of Puccini's language, we have to look beyond conventional ideas of operatic italianità. Wilson's book shows us how to do this." -- Axel Körner, University College London