top of page

La Vie de Bohème

Writer's picture: KiwiTenorKiwiTenor

Let’s get started with some background music for this read, brought to you by spotify’s algorithm.


Midnight. Mid January. 122nd St. Harlem. New York City. A smattering of snow outside.


I’ve just returned to my Airbnb in Harlem, still buzzing from tonight’s performance of La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera. For those of you unfamiliar with the opera world, La Bohème is one of Giacomo Puccini’s masterpieces. It’s set in Paris’s Quartier Latin in the late 1800s and follows the lives of four friends: a poet, a painter, a musician, and a philosopher. Add in two complicated yet enchanting women, Mimi and Musetta, and you’ve got the perfect mix of romance, comedy, heartbreak, and just the right amount of chaos. Think of it as the operatic version of ‘Friends’ (when in New York).


The Metropolitan Opera, NYC
The Metropolitan Opera, NYC


Over four acts, Puccini captures the very essence of youthful idealism: that potent cocktail of whimsical humor, unbridled passion, and the bittersweet edge of reality. One moment you’re laughing at the lads and their absurd antics—burning the very manuscripts that would one day pay for fuel and food, just to stay warm—and the next, you’re weeping over the fragility of first love and life itself.


This opera holds a special place in my heart. Back in 2023, I performed the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème in Montreal. It marked what I now see as the start of a great transitional period in my life. It was a chapter filled with creativity, joy, love, loss, and growth—an unforgettable, ongoing journey that I think, as an artist, is something I enjoy being able to step back and view from a distance. Since then, life has been nothing short of wild. Wild in the most exhilarating ways: career milestones, artistic breakthroughs, eye-opening travels, new people, and new perspectives. But also wild in its unpredictability: financial struggles, a sense of disconnection from that cultural norm of ‘stability,’ the great loss of a compass point to home, and the inevitable chaos that comes with chasing dreams.


This duality—the euphoria and the turbulence—is something La Bohème captures so vividly. And it’s why, as a musician, I feel deeply connected to it. We musicians are the modern-day bohemians. We’re fiery, passionate, a little reckless. We’re lovers and fighters, dreamers and cynics, all at once. We throw ourselves head first into our art, knowing full well it might leave us broke, exhausted, or adrift. And yet, we keep going.



Snippet from Act 3 with two mentors of mine, Etienne Dupuis and Nicole Car


This is something I’ve had to stop and ask myself a lot lately. There’s a constant battle between the sacrifices we make for this career and the worth of the career itself. For those who know me, you’ll know that I previously built some sort of career in the banking world, sadly not the part that teaches you any good financial habits, or leaves you filthy rich with the penthouse and the Aston Martin,(sadly) but… I always find it interesting to have this perspective from both sides of the fence.


On one hand (and this is a line many friends have heard me say recently) the ‘Corporate Worker’ life gave me great income, a beautiful apartment in the city centre of Melbourne, financial freedom, ease of a life lived without really much of a question. But it also gave me stress, balancing two careers at once, a mindset that was not one of looking after myself physically, mentally or otherwise. My routines were close minded, narrowed and somewhat boring when I look back at myself in that time.


And then this brings us to the ‘Opera Singer’ life. No home, no real possessions, living a life of non stop hustle, stress in a completely different way - one that is oddly rewarding and unsettling in its own rights. This life makes it almost impossible to establish anything stereotypically solid. In this life we sacrifice being part of key family events, we sacrifice the ability to build and develop relationships, finances, starting our own family, we sacrifice financial freedom. We sacrifice all of this, for a beautiful, vibrant, outstanding life that is filled with immense fulfilment, overwhelming stress and anxiety, last minute flights, all paired with a good dose of doubt and second guessing.


Watching La Bohème tonight at the Met felt like visiting a friend—someone who knows you too well, flaws and all. It reminded me of the unglamorous, achingly real parts of this life I have chosen: the uncertainty, the hunger (both literal and metaphorical), the sacrifices. But it also reminded me why we do it. Listening to a good 70% percent of the audience (myself included) messily weeping the classic ‘ugly cry’ when Rodolfo cries out ‘Mimi!’ at the end.


This. This is why we endure the instability, the late nights, the endless hustle. Because, at its core, the bohemian life isn’t just about art or rebellion or romance. It’s about living—truly living—with your whole heart, even when it’s messy, even when it hurts, and sharing that with the rest of humanity.


I think that’s why this opera resonates so deeply, even today. Whether you’re an artist, a stranger off the street, or just someone navigating the ups and downs of life, there’s something universal in its story. That tension between wanting to be free and longing for stability, between the pursuit of passion and the ache of loss—it’s something we all feel at some point. And maybe, just maybe, it’s from within that insecurity that we can find something resembling stability.


This is what I’ll be telling myself, anyway.


———


So, tell me—whether you’re an artist or not: have you had your own “bohemian” chapter? That period in life when everything felt raw, intense, and wildly uncertain? Did it inspire you, break you, or maybe both? I’d love to hear about your own La Bohème moments, whatever shape they took. Let’s swap stories, because if there’s one thing we bohemians know, it’s this: life is better when shared, even in its chaos.


44 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


© 2023 by Zachary McCulloch. Powered and secured by Wix

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
bottom of page