Puccini's La Boheme: Is Love at First Sight Really a Thing?

Aria Code

WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Aria, Music, Arts, Metropolitan, Performing Arts, Code, Wqxr, Opera, Wnyc, Studios

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2018

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Love at first sight is not just a cliché of romantic comedies: more than half of all Americans say they’ve experienced it. Can this explain the timeless appeal of Puccini’s La Bohème? In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests consider what love at first sight is really all about, sharing perspectives on the music, the history and, yes, the brain science. Plus, you'll hear tenor Vittorio Grigolo sing the complete aria "Che gelida manina" from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We pine for love, we live for love, we kill for love and we die for love.
0:09.6	So the most powerful brain systems the human animal has ever evolved.
0:13.4	Hey, I'm Rianne Giddens.
0:18.0	From WQXR in the metropolitan opera, this is Arya Code.
0:22.4	When I married the first time, it was a love at first sight.
0:25.3	I saw something that I was so surprised and so interested in it and it turns out to be love.
0:31.4	In each episode of Arya Code, singers and other experts decode one Arya and we get to hear it all the way through.
0:38.1	Today, it's K. J. Lida Manina from one of the most popular operas in the world,
0:43.1	Labo Wem by J. Cmopu Gini.
0:45.4	Even in the mediocre performance, we cry when Mimi dies because it's everybody's fate.
0:55.3	In Ireland, where I live, there's an idea of the Anumkara.
1:06.6	Anumkara is Arya's gaelic for soul-friend and the idea is that you meet somebody's eyes and your soul sees theirs.
1:16.7	And you have that moment of connection.
1:19.0	Love at first sight, if you want to call it that.
1:21.4	It is the deepest, most profound connection you can have with a person and you know it immediately.
1:26.6	It's not something that you kind of think about or it kind of develops.
1:31.0	It's like you have it or you don't.
1:33.3	And we keep telling stories about this.
1:35.3	Obviously, it connects with us in a really, really deep way.
1:39.1	And K. J. Lida Manina from Labo Wem is all about that.
1:42.6	It's all about love at first sight.
1:45.2	Now, if you haven't heard Boem or you need a quick refresher,
	...

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