"In the operatic dictionary that has his name, Gustave Kobbé emphasizes Puccini's efficiency in mixing comic and dramatic registers: 'Having the Parisian Quartir Latin ambience, where it is proverbial the inseparability between drama and happiness, [the music registers] evolve in a mixing of laughs and tears that calls our attention for the fact that authors and composers capable of unravelling the passion raptures are a legion, but only a few are the ones owning the sutil gift of comedy. It is this comedy touch that distinguishes several of the score passages in Bohème, alternately exciting, passionate, and eloquent in moments of despair'." (Perpetuo)