Two Italian operas opened last week in the UK, each dealing with perennial themes of love and loss, yet as far from each other in approach as could possibly be imagined; one opulent and glamorous, the other dark and visceral. The rapture could be found in Leeds, from the ever-inventive Opera North; the starkness in London, appropriately from battered and bruised English National Opera.
Puccini’s La rondine (1917), often dismissed as a minor operetta when compared with his larger masterpieces, receives a welcome reassessment in James Hurley’s hugely attractive new production, set in 1930s Paris and given the full art deco treatment by designer Leslie Travers, with glorious costumes from Gabrielle Dalton that shimmer under Paule Constable and Ben Pickersgill’s lighting design.
