By JEREMY EICHLER [NY Times, 14 March 2006]

Puccini's beloved bohemians returned to New York City Opera on Sunday afternoon, but this time with more on their minds than romance, poetry and the question of how to split a herring four ways on a cold Parisian night. For his production, introduced in 2001, James Robinson has punted "La Bohème" forward some 80 years, placing the action in the opening months of World War I. Soldiers parade past Café Momus, armed guards check papers in Act III, and the garret denizens drape their uniforms over Mimi to keep her warm on her deathbed.