"In springtime, no one is lonely . . . "

Act III of La Bohème. Ill-fated lovers Mimi and Rodolfo must part: she is very ill, and he is very poor, and he wants her to be free to find a richer man, one who might have the means to obtain a cure for her.

But they decide to wait until April to break up, because in the springtime no one is lonely; the birds and the flowers keep solitary souls company. Mimì says, touchingly, at the end, "I wish the winter would last forever."

(In the meantime, the unfaithful lovers Musetta and Marcello are having a spat.)