La Bohème - San Francisco Opera

SYNOPSIS
ACT I
It is Christmas Eve in a cold and cheerless artist's garret in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
Marcello, an artist, and his friend Rodolfo, a poet, have no firewood and are so cold that
they are burning pages from Rodolfo's play to try to keep warm. Soon they are joined by
their friends Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician, who brings food, fuel and
money. (Schaunard had been employed by a rich patron to play to a neighbor's parrot until
it dropped dead. He decided to speed up the process by sweet-talking the chambermaid
into giving him some parsley, which he fed to the parrot, promptly killing it, and allowing him
to take his reward.) The friends decide to celebrate by going out to eat in the Latin Quarter,
but before they can leave, the landlord, Benoit, shows up with a bill for the rent. The
friends, of course, have no money, so they give Benoit wine, hoping that he will get drunk
enough to forget all about the rent. As he gets drunk, he tells them about his love affairs
and complains of his wife's ugliness. Pretending to be shocked at his behavior, the friends
throw him out. Schaunard, Marcello and Colline triumphantly head for the Café Momus in
the Latin Quarter, but Rodolfo stays behind, saying that he has work to complete. Rodolfo
sits down to write but cannot concentrate, and then he hears a knock on the door. It is
Mimì, their downstairs neighbor. Her candle has gone out, and she doesn’t have a match
to light it. She suddenly faints as she enters the room and Rodolfo revives her with a glass
of wine. She is clearly ill, and after Rodolfo lights the candle for her, she starts to leave.
Just then she realizes that she has dropped her key on the floor, and they look for it
together, the candles blowing out in the process. In the midst of their search in the dark,
Rodolfo finds the key and hides it so that he may talk to Mimì a little longer. As they tell
each other about their lives ("Che gelida manina" and "Mi chiamano Mimì"), they begin to
fall in love.
ACT II
It is a few minutes later, on the street in front of the Café Momus.
Street vendors hawk their wares, and Parpignol, the toy seller, strolls by with a crowd of
children hounding him. Rodolfo buys Mimì a hat and introduces her to his friends. As they
sit down to eat their Christmas Eve meal, Musetta, Marcello's on-again-off-again girlfriend,
enters with her new lover, the much older and much richer Alcindoro. Musetta can get
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