La Bohème - San Francisco Opera

George Sand, a woman, whose real name was Aurore Dudevant, was creating her
own kind of revolution. Having taken on a male alias in order to get her writing published,
she also took on the cause of writing to promote women's emancipation. She had left her
husband and two children in order to seek the freedom to write and live her life as she
desired. She often went to see her husband at his country home, and she also lived in
Paris with her lover.
George Sand, a.k.a. Aurore Deduvant
As with most changes, even these revolutionary shifts in the arts, social mores and
politics did not create permanent changes. Not all of the art produced by even these young
talents was good enough to eradicate all of the numbingly predictable "traditional" art of the
time. Even the political revolution ended in yet another king being crowned. However, the
seeds of great and startling changes had been laid and some of the best loved and most
passionate art of the century was and would continue to be produced by the Bohemians of
Paris.
Café Momus by Thomas Boys, 1819
16