Puccini's music echoes the spirit of Murger's romance with
marvellous sincerity. It paints the mingled joy and grief of Bohemian
life in hues the most delicate and tender. Like Murger, though dealing
with things often squalid and unlovely, he never forgets that he is an
artist. The sordid facts of life are gilded by the rainbow colours of
romance. Puccini has caught the fanciful grace of Murger's style with
the dexterity of genius. His music is thoroughly Italian in style, but
he never strikes a false note. He dashes off the irresponsible gaiety of
the earlier scenes with a touch which though light is always sure, and
when the action deepens to tenderness, and even to pathos, he can be
serious without falling into sentimentality and impressive without
encroaching upon the boundaries of melodrama. 'La Boheme' is one of the
few operas of recent years which can be described as a masterpiece.
With 'La Tosca,' which was produced in 1899, Puccini won another
success, though for very different reasons from those which made 'La
Boheme' so conspicuous a triumph. The libretto is a clever condensation
of Sardou's famous drama. The scene is laid in Rome in the year 1800. In
the first act we are introduced to Mario Cavaradossi, a painter, who is
at work in a church, and to Flora Tosca, his mistress, a famous singer,
who pays him a visit and teases him with her jealous reproaches.
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