Happy birthday, Giacomo Puccini!

The first two acts of “La bohème,” of course, are set on Christmas Eve – Act I in a chilly but cheery artists’ garret, and Act II on the festive streets of Paris’ Latin Quarter.

The world premiere of Puccini’s opera took place at the Teatro Regio in Turin on February 1, 1896. On the podium was a 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini.

Allegedly, the opening night reaction was a subdued one, and critics were divided. But it wasn’t long before Rodolfo’s kindling gave rise to a flame that would engulf all of Europe and the New World.

Though audiences quickly grew to love it, “Bohème” and its composer have always been regarded with a degree of suspicion – condescension even – by critics and Puccini’s envious colleagues. The music lacks sophistication, we are told, and the opera’s lyricism and pathos are calculating – emotional pandering. Whether or not that’s the case, music lovers can’t get enough of it and Puccini cried all the way to the bank.

Prior to his years of success, Puccini and his friends, mostly writers and artists, would gather at a roadside shed in Torre del Lago to drink and play cards. They referred to the structure as “Capanna di Giovanni delle Bande Nere” (“Cabin of Giovanni of the Black Stripes”), after its owner, a local cobbler. When the cobbler struck out to seek his fortune in America, the artists bought the shack and continued to meet under the banner “La Bohème Club” (as stated on a sign they painted on the roof).

Further signs were posted on the walls inside, in faulty Latin and ungrammatical Italian. Its members pledged themselves under oath to be well and eat butter.

The following were the club’s by-laws:

1. Poker faces, pedants, weak stomachs, blockheads, puritans and other wretches of the species are not admitted and will be chased away.

2. The President acts as conciliator but undertakes to hinder the Treasurer in the collection of the subscription money.

3. The Treasurer is empowered to abscond with the money.

4. The lighting of the locale is provided by a petrol lamp. Failing the fuel, the “moccoli” of the members are to be used [a pun on “moccolo,” meaning either “candle stump” or “blockhead”].

5. All games permitted by law are forbidden.

6. Silence is prohibited.

7. Wisdom is not permitted, except in special cases.

One can imagine the carefree bohemians, Rodolfo’s companions, rollicking in their garret. After the triumph of “Bohème,” the opera, no one was having to burn their plays for fuel, or hock their coats for medicine.

There’s nothing like a little success to take the worry out of “bohemian life.”

André Kostelanetz (also born on this date) conducting a purely orchestral suite of highlights from “La bohème”

The bohemians in their garret

Mimi’s hands are cold, so Rodolfo goes to work (the old smoothie)

IMAGES: From an 1896 poster of the opera, and an 1897 photo of the club