Experience the world’s most popular opera, Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohéme,” at Munson as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live simulcasts at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, in the Museum’s Sinnott Family–Bank of Utica Auditorium in Downtown Utica. Tickets are $26 for Munson Members, $32 for the general public, and $16 for students and can be purchased by calling 315-797-0055 or online at munson.art/met-live. 

With its enchanting setting and spellbinding score, “La Bohéme” is as timeless as it is heartbreaking. Franco Zeffirelli’s picture-perfect production brings 19th-century Paris to the Met stage as Puccini’s young friends and lovers navigate the joy and struggle of bohemian life. Soprano Juliana Grigoryan is the feeble seamstress Mimì opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the ardent poet Rodolfo. Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts.

At first glance, “La Bohème” is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things—a bonnet, an old overcoat, a chance meeting with a neighbor—that make up our everyday lives.

Lyrical and touchingly beautiful, the score of “La Bohème” exerts an immediate emotional pull. Many of its most memorable melodies are built incrementally, with small intervals between the notes that carry the listener with them on their lyrical path. This is a distinct contrast to the grand leaps and dives that earlier operas often depended on for emotional effect. “La Bohème’s” melodic structure perfectly captures the “small people” (as Puccini called them) of the drama and the details of everyday life.

Enjoy even more performances in 2025 as The Met: Live in HD at Munson continues with the following operas:

• “Arabella,” Strauss — 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025

• “Andrea Chénier,” Umberto Giordano — 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

For more information on each performance and to purchase tickets, visit munson.art/met-live.

“The Met: Live in HD” at Munson is sponsored by Elizabeth R. Lemieux, Ph.D.

“The Met: Live in HD” series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital Support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. “The Met: Live in HD” series is supported by Rolex.

For media inquiries, please contact Katie Voce, communications manager, at 315-797-0000 ext. 2147 or via email at kvoce@munson.art.