Giacomo Puccini were Puccini's contemporaries, drew express parallels between these incidents and particular events in the opera. Checchi cited a diary kept by Puccini while he was still a student, which recorded an occasion in which, as in Act 4 of the opera, a single herring served as a dinner for four people. Puccini himself commented: "I lived that "Bohème", when there wasn't yet any thought stirring in my brain of seeking the theme of an opera". ("") Puccini's composition of "La bohème" was the subject of a public dispute between Puccini and fellow composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo. In early 1893, the two
Paris Opera Ballet Just as prestigious as the Paris Opera Ballet is its dance school, the Paris Opera Ballet School (French: "École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris"), considered as one of the world's best dance school. Its former pupils have won a record of 20 Benois de la Danse awards. The school celebrated its tercentennial in 2013. The competition for admission to both institutions is extremely fierce. To be admitted there, to pass the annual competitive examinations in May, and to attend at least the final two classes is basically compulsory for dancers entering the Paris Opera Ballet. 95% of the