La rondine by Giacomo Puccini

Opera in three acts
Music by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Libretto by Giuseppe Adami based on a German text by Alfred Willner and Heinz Reichert
Premiere: Monaco, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, 27 march 1917

Puccini Centenary Festival

Magda, a kept woman and heroine of "La rondine", entertains a dream of flying like a swallow from her superficial life in mundane Paris across a vast sea, towards the sun and true love. The work was commissioned as an operetta by the Vienna Carltheater but the First World War prevented a production. In the end, the world premiere took place in 1917, in Monte Carlo. The authors were Alfred Maria Willner – who had written two libretti for Franz Lehár – and Hans Reichert. This explains why much of the subject matter resembles Lehár’s stories, but also Die Fledermaus, and most evidently, La traviata. Puccini, however, never intended to write a Viennese operetta. If anything, he wanted to follow Richard Strauss, not Johann. And thus, one of the most memorable elements of his music is the perfumed, sentimental and melancholic waltz. But he also made use of fashionable American dances which were conquering Europe at the time, such as the fox-trot or one-step. These elements tie up La rondine with another famous opera that was premiered at our theatre and which we also present during the 2024/25 season: Ravel’s "L’Enfant et les Sortilèges".

Conductor| Giacomo Sagripanti
Choirmaster | Stefano Visconti
Magda | Pretty Yende
Lisette | Deanna Breiwick
Ruggero | Charles Castronovo
Prunier | Juan Francisco Gatell
Rambaldo | Roberto de Candia

Choir of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Orchestra of the Opera Carlo Felice in Genoa