A note in the autograph full score of the opera, now at the Ricordi Archive in Milan, reveals that the composer refined and orchestrated Act I from January 21 to Jhe dated Acts II to IV July 19, September 18, and December 10, 1895, respectively. Still, constant revision of the libretto caused many delays. 2 Drawing upon previous compositions, such as his Capriccio sinfonico and sketches for La Lupa, in addition to creating new material, Puccini's progress at this stage was rapid.

Puccini then began a compositional draft, notating complete vocal lines and a sketch of the accompaniment material. Puccini's trips to supervise productions of Manon Lescaut, as well as his relentless, if often expedient, interference with the efforts of his librettists for La Bohème, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, delayed the completion of the libretto until August 1894. Amid charges and countercharges of literary theft, the two composers set to work. However, the librettist and composer Ruggero Leoncavallo had also discovered Murger's novel. However, in July of 1894, Puccini expressed his doubts about the suitability of La Lupa to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, and turned his attention exclusively to Scènes de la Vie de Bohème. For a time, it appears that he favored the Verga work, and even visited the author in Catania to observe Sicilian culture firsthand. After the completion of Manon Lescaut in 1892, Puccini considered setting either Giovanni Verga's short story, La Lupa, or Henry Murger's novel, Scènes de la Vie de Bohème.

Giacomo Puccini's fourth opera, La Bohème, is the work which reflects his reaching full compositional maturity. Listen to this page A Fragment from Act II of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème

La boheme opera short synopsis