Glasgow Grand's long-term policy was to pair an unusual opera with a popular favourite. How astonishing that in all the years since 1911 they had never performed a work by Puccini, not even Turandot with its massed chorus scenes. Bohème only uses the chorus briefly in the second act, so it was perhaps a useful companion to Samson and Dellah, with its demanding role for massed choirs.
Scottish Opera had not yet revived its 1967 staging, which was always done in Italian, and Sadler's Wells had not brought Bohème north for some years. It had also long been a fixture in the Carl Rosa repertoire, but that company had disappeared over a decade before, so it was perhaps a good time for the Society to stage it. The venerable translation by Grist and Pinkerton, dating back to 1896, was still used, with 'Your tiny hand is frozen' now almost becoming part of the language.
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