La bohème

Opening of Act II »

(It is later the same evening, outside the Café Momus in the Latin Quarter; the café is so crowded that customers have to be accommodated at tables outside. All around them street vendors are shouting their wares.)

Street vendors: Oranges, dates! Hot chestnuts! Trinkets, crosses! Nougat! Whipped cream! Fruit pies! Toffees! Flowers for the pretty girls! Sparrows! Finches!

Children: Oranges, trinkets! Come on, let’s hurry, come on, hurry!

Men: What crowds! What a lot of noise!

Women: Oh, what a lot of people!

Students: Come one, let’s run! Stick close to me! What a struggle! Come on, let’s run!

Crowd: Make way! Let’s run!