Timeline February 1896

Events in February 1896 2

• 1896 Puccini's La Boheme premieres Opera about Parisian bohemians debuts in Turin Giacomo Puccini's opera La Boheme, based on Henri Murger's stories of bohemian life in Paris, premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1896, conducted by a young Arturo Toscanini. Initial reviews were mixed, but the opera quickly became one of the most performed works in the repertoire. It remains among the most popular operas worldwide.
• 1896 Father dies — family settles in Sarehole Arthur Tolkien dies in Bloemfontein on 15 February 1896. Mabel Tolkien, now a widow with two small boys and limited income, settles in Sarehole — then a rural village south of Birmingham — where Ronald spends four formative years. Sarehole's mill, fields, hedgerows and local characters (including a farmer the boys nickname 'The Black Ogre') leave deep impressions on Tolkien's imagination. He later identifies Sarehole as the primary landscape of the Shire. The rural English idyll he discovers there — and its loss as Birmingham's suburbs swallow the village — haunts his work.