What is the Latin Quarter?
A neighborhood in Paris. Located on the Left Bank of the Seine River in the 5th and 6th arrondissements, this quarter of Paris is renowned for its scholarly tradition. The Sorbonne/University of Paris is located in this quarter. Despite the expensive rents that pushed many artists to the outer fringes of the city (notably the communities of Montmartre and Montparnasse), the university still drew a large pool of artistic talent and character to the Latin Quarter. Did Puccini really set La bohème in the Latin Quarter? Maybe. The libretto offers clues that his setting could be based on his recollections of Lucca, Italy, where he had spent his student days: The crowd greets each other in Act III saying, “Where are you going?” “To San Michele”—San Michele is a square in Lucca. The café scene in Act II, with vendors hawking their wares, is typical of Lucca. Some of the phrases sung in the opera are in the Lucca dialect, including the milkmaids’ cry of “Hopplà!” at the beginning of Act III. D
