A dream cast for the current generation brought me back to the Metropolitan Opera for Giacomo Puccini's "La Bohème" (1896) for the first time in nearly a decade-and-a-half. One of the most romantic of late-Romantic Italian operas, set in an artistic milieu in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1830s, "Bohème" opened for the season on February 20 and I heard the February 24 performance, the second of nine this winter.

"Bohème" at present, boasting a number of new principals, is cast almost entirely with bel canto singers, who bring the sensitivity and refinement of Bellini, Donizetti or Mozart singing to Puccini's soaring late 19th century lines. It is hard to imagine a more perfect ensemble now than the one over which conductor Marco Armiliato presides.

Anna Netrebko, who sang a complete Met Mimì, the consumptive seamstress, on only one occasion before this season, and Piotr Beczala, the new Rodolfo, the poet, make a most endearing pair of lyrical young lovers with whom to empathize and sympathize.

Singing in a limpid, unforced lyric soprano, Nicole Cabell, the new Musetta, the flashy grisette, or 'goodtime girl,' suitably makes a spectacle of herself, in her red dress, singing her seductive waltz song, the center of attention even amid the multi-level splendors of Franco Zeffirelli's Café Momus and busy environs, populated by hundreds of company members, and still breathtaking after 28 years. Cabell captures the audience's rapt attention even with the offstage bit of a bis of "Quando m'en vo," near the beginning of Act Three.

Gerald Finley brings the same careful, measured attention to detail and phrasing, as Marcello, the painter, here, as he did to his J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist protagonist of John Adams' "Dr. Atomic," last season. Striking young baritone Massimo Cavalletti-hailing from Lucca, as Puccini did-as the musician, Schaunard, makes a worthy new addition to the company. Oren Gradus, succeeding Shenyang, who sang on the first night, as the philosopher Colline, sings a touching farewell to the old overcoat he sacrifices to pay for a doctor for the dying Mimì. Veteran bass Paul Plishka, an erstwhile Colline, doubles, with distinction, now, as hapless Benoit, the bohemians' landlord, and Alcindoro, Musetta's 'protector,' and Jeremy Little makes the most of his brief appearance as Parpignol, the toy vendor, as popular with his diminutive followers as Musetta is with her beaux.

Repetitions of "La Bohème" are on February 27 and March 20 at 1 p.m. and March 2, 6, 10, 13 and 17 at 8 p.m. Ruth Ann Swenson, George Petean (debut), and Daniel Clark Smith take over the roles of Musetta, Marcello, and Parpignol on March 10, 13, 17 and 20. Shenyang returns to the role of Colline on March 6. Patrick Carfizzi sings Schaunard on March 10 and 13. For tickets, priced from $15 to 375, telephone 212/362-6000, visit www.metopera.org, or go the Met box office at Lincoln Center. Rush tickets, for $20, are available at the box office, on the day of performance, from Monday through Thursday evenings.