Before getting on the stage, "La Bohème"'s cast has a concentration ritual.

"Rodolfo, a poet, Marcello, a painter, Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician, make a friend's quartet faithful to their dedication to art and philosophy. They live by their spirit not by material demands. Bohemia is not only getting drunk at night. It is getting drunk at night and live with 'loose women', because that is what true life philosophy asks for. It is that one which is not for sale for the bourgeoisie world, but it suffers the effects of its insensibility to the non-materialist spirit." (Pondé)