Puccini’s opera La rondine, until fairly recently regarded a slight work compared to his other operas, is a feast of lyricism and nostalgic sentimentality. Premiered in neutral Monte Carlo in 1917, while Italy was in conflict with Austria and the Central Powers, it was criticised by some nationalists for inappropriate frivolity and the fact that the libretto by Giuseppe Adami was based on a German version by two Austrians, Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert. Adami set the opera not in Vienna but in fashionable Paris, and this new production at Opera North, directed by James Hurley, sees us in the post-war Paris of Les Années folles of the 1920s, when a number of the capital’s cafés were the venues for wild gaiety and dramatic love intrigues, frequented by famous figures from high society and the cultural world.
The plot shows the strong influence not only of Verdi’s La traviata, but of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, the waltz tunes bringing Viennese operetta to mind, even though there is no spoken dialogue. The central figure of Magda, mistress of the wealthy banker Rambaldo, dreams romantically of true love and believes the words of the well-dressed poet Prunier, who reads her palm to tell her she will fly away like a swallow (rondine) to find it. By the time she gets to Act 3, she is on a rumpled bed with her lover Ruggero, still sleeping after a night of activity. He is a young man who stresses his provincial origins, but the affair does not end well: when he reads a letter from his mother on the subject of marriage, inviting him to bring her home, she realises that her past as a courtesan will follow her, and she rejects him. In the previous two acts, which were run together on this occasion, all is hedonistic jollity, with dancing and pranks. Magda and her maid Lisette go out separately in disguise, with amusing complications arising when they arrive at the same place – Bullier’s, the chic café where most of the action occurs.
Soprano Galina Averina, making her Opera North debut, was terrific as Magda, her acting energetic and convincing, her singing clear, sweet and well controlled. She set the tone for much else just after the start of Act 1 with her famous brief aria “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” when she adds to the sentimental poem composed for a fashionable throng of Champagne drinkers by Prunier, played by rich-toned Welsh tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas.
Tenor Sebastien Guèze was Magda’s young lover, Ruggero, efficiently conveying in his voice a kind of loving earnestness, with real anger and bewilderment at the end when he is spurned. Baritone Philip Smith seemed like a rather gloomy Rambaldo, his warm voice repelling any thoughts that he might become nasty or vindictive.
Soprano Claire Lees was charmingly charismatic as the cheeky, smiling Lisette, Magda’s maid, her top notes particularly pure. She is flagged in the publicity as member of the brilliant Opera North Chorus, but so were others: Magda’s best friends Bianca, Suzy and Yvette were played with great gusto by Kathryn Sharpe, Laura Kelly-McInroy and Pasquale Orchard respectively, and the Chorus as a whole, kept in fine condition by Chorusmaster Anthony Kraus, made an impressive impact in Act 2 with “Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso”. Conductor Karem Hasan steered the orchestra with great skill through the light and effervescent episodes and moments of high emotion to the sadness and angst of the final act.
This was the last component of the company’s Green Season, and also an opportunity for retiring General Director Sir Richard Mantle to voice his moving goodbyes on the stage after 30 years. The recycled nature of the sets was not very apparent, except for some Dexion scaffolding. I looked in vain for the old caravan, sourced from a local beer garden, which appeared in the season's other productions. A magnificent giant vase of flowers and slinky tube-like ball gowns made me consider what else is kept in Opera North's stores. As for the Twenties café, I was only half-convinced, with Belle Époque connotations more in the mind. Puccini, perhaps, was thinking of that too, a peaceful, relatively hopeful time before the horrors of the Great War.
