Operas often don’t end up being performed in quite the way their composers intended – and that’s been especially true of La Rondine, Puccini’s slender opera about the Parisienne courtesan Magda and her fleeting attempt to relive the romance and excitement of her youth. But a new edition has made his final thoughts on his opera performable again, and Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra got to do the big reveal.
The standard version of La Rondine, performed at the premiere in 1917, ends with Magda – the “migrating swallow” of the title – nobly leaving her lovelorn Ruggero so that he can find someone more marriageable. Yet Puccini’s 1921 revision – his third version of the opera, the one he was finally happy with – has Ruggero angrily sending Magda away. It’s a big change, making the opera’s aftertaste bitter where it used to be sweet. There are lots of other differences too, notably some extra merrymaking for the chorus and orchestra in the second act.
