The perennial Puccini crowd-pleaser, with its tale of life and love among the Parisian artists of the 1840s, is brought to the big screen in the Met's famous production, originally conceived by Franco Zefirelli. We know the outcome even before the first act ends, but Puccini's music is so moving, so powerfully simple and direct, that it never fails. Puccini's genius sense of drama and emotion shines through in the final moments of the opera; where a lesser composer would likely end the story with the death of the heroine, a big "bang-crash" from the orchestra, Puccini does the opposite. He sustains the suspense for a few more minutes, ever so quietly, as he shows each of the surviving characters whispering and realizing, until Rodolfo, the last to see the truth, finally reacts. That is where the power of this opera comes from.