Passion and precarity, love and friendship, jealousy and loyalty, youth and experience. Puccini’s evergreen group portrait of artists and grisettes in the Quartier Latin brings the bustle and romance of Paris to Holland Park. Mimì and Rodolfo meet on Christmas Eve and fall instantly in love, toasting their future together in the Café Momus. But poverty and disease are a present danger that they and their friends must eventually negotiate.