Christmas cheer

Puccini’s Bohemians really knew how to have a good time at Christmas. Huddled in a freezing cold Parisian garret, Rodolfo is reduced to burning his own play for warmth and has just consigned the final act to the flames when Schaunard bursts in and flings on to the table a shower of coins he has earned from giving music lessons to an eccentric Englishman. Along with Marcello and Colline they manage to get out of paying the quarter’s rent they owe and head off to the Café Momus to celebrate Christmas Eve with a blow-out dinner. Act Two of the opera is a sort of self-contained festive explosion, with conspicuous consumption (rather than the tubercular variety, which makes itself less joyously apparent later on) at its heart. Street salesmen are pressing roast chestnuts, oranges, dates and nougat on passers-by; Mimì lingers longingly over a coral necklace but has to content herself with a pink bonnet; children clamour for toys and, when everyone eventually settles down to eat, they call for a fabulously indigestible combination of venison, turkey and lobster washed down with Rhenish wine.