One of the world's most beloved operas, "La Bohème" is, along with
Puccini's "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly", one of the pillars of the Italian
repertory. Premiered in Turin on 1 February 1896, it was dismissed as "a
momentary error". It wasn't until its first performance in Palermo that
year that the opera scored a definitive success. This production of "La
Bohème" scored a trio of "firsts": it was the first opera film to be
produced by Unitel, the first music film conducted by Herbert von Karajan,
and the first major film production by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet,
Jesus of Nazareth). Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli's
acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni
Raimondi as the star-crossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and
orchestra of Milan's La Scala. The production is still considered today one
of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera
performance in the 20th century.