Customer Reviews

Giacomo Puccini - La Rondine (Washington National Opera 1999)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 1999 Washington Opera production of Puccini's chocolate box of an opera isn't perfect, but has many delights. The cast, all verismo stalwarts, have glamour, fine voices, and are decent-enough actors. Marcus Haddock looks rather unfortunate clean-shaven here as the juvenile; his Don Jose at Glyndebourne is much more physically appealling. Richard Troxell, though, is attractive and funny as Prunier. Both the female leads are seen to good advantage, with Inva Mula in particular a delight. The physical production is lavish but not completely overwhelming, with many witty design touches in the second act, and a nicely simple beach cottage for the third act. Marta Domingo's direction is intelligent, thoughtful and well-detailed. Unfortunate, though, is her decision to impose a tragic ending on Puccini's own bittersweet resolution. This opera's frequently characterized as TRAVIATA LITE; tacking on a suicide for Magda at the final curtain doesn't accomplish much, except making that comparison seem weighted even more strongly in Verdi's direction. This is probably the most enjoyable of the several RONDINES currently in the DVD catalogue; fans of this opera, or Puccini in general, will enjoy this handsome DG release.

I have seen both the New York City Opera's production and the latest one with Ghiorghiu and Alagna on TV. This is the best in that all of the singers are excellent and the staging and costumes look great.
Marcus Haddock has an excellent voice but suffered from poor direction being made to perform as a country bumpkin for too long into the play and whoever put him into "Billy Bunter" trousers for the final scene should feel ashamed (even if they were correct for the period). The staging of the background in Act III is very static until the final scene when the clouds start moving-in and so do the waves.
Ainhoa Arteta looks like Julia Roberts better looking younger sister, but why make this Spanish beauty with dark eyebrows and brown eyes into a blonde? It does not really work (nor did it work for Julia Roberts)
I am giving this 5 stars because only 4 or 5 can be chosen and this is, in the end far better than a 4-star production.

There are currently four DVD versions for La Rondine.
For my taste, this new one from Decca is the best.

Martha Domingo presents the opera in a beautiful and effective traditional production.

I really enjoyed Ainhoa Arteta performance as Magda. Hers two Act I arias are sung with beautiful pianissimi and finesse which expresses vulnerability. She is very moving in the finales of Act II and III.

Hopefully, the lavish Met production with Gheorghiu will appear on a commercial DVD (although it has a very weak performance by Samuel Ramey). In the meantime, this production will do more than enough.

I saw this performance on TV years ago, and have searched it for a long time. I was delighted to watch it again. It was just as I remembered it. Arteta, Haddock, Troxell and Mula are wonderful in their roles. I like the costumes better than the Met version this year (Gheorghiu sound great, despite her cold, but those costumes! I think she did not look her best.) I highly recommend this - Puccini's music is gorgeous.

"La rondine" has not been especially lucky on DVD -- a 50's-vintage performance with Rosanna Carteri as Magda is lovely but in murky sound and primitive staging, and then there is this event from 1999. The sound is good, and the staging and filming are decent, and the performances are ok. The only performance worth remembering here, however, is Inva Mula's, in the secondary, soubrette role of Lisette. Later she would become an estimable Magda, and here you can hear why. This production's Magda, Ainhoa Arteta, is glamorous and has a lovely, though not particularly memorable voice, and she tends to overact, as does her tenor, Marcus Haddock. It's easy (though maybe not fair) to wonder whether the broad gestures and italicizing of every possible nuance come from the director's overall sense of the story: notoriously, Marta Domingo's production relies on a few late revisions in Puccini's notes which transform this delicately pitched Italian version of Viennese operetta into something closer to Madama Butterfly or Tosca. Exaggeration is the key, and the truth, in my view, is that Domingo doesn't trust Puccini's music or his initial dramatic instincts, which refused the superficial satisfaction having Madga resort to suicide at the end of the drama. But Domingo's staging insists on this kind of closure, and it ruins the production. The recent Met production (with Angela Gheorghius in one of her signature roles) sensibly honors Puccini's earlier vision, and it pays off, by making sense of a story that resists the temptation to link disappointment and degradation inexoraby to death. Maybe that production will eventually be released on DVD. In the meantime there are at least two astonishingly beautiful CD versions, one on RCA (with Anna Moffo) and one on EMI (with Gheorghiu), and a more problematic but still interesting recording on CBS Masterworks (with Te Kanawa). In a pinch, I'd go for the Moffo. Her singing throughout, but especially in Act II, is unbelievably beautiful, and more spontaneous than Gheorghiu's.

A very enjoyable production, especially Act 1 which I like to play over and over. Ainhoa Arteta as Magda sings one of the best "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" I have ever heard - beautiful legato and pianissimo on the high notes. Her second aria "Ore dolci e divine" is equally beautiful. Opera is primarily about singing and the singing is good throughout. Good acting does add to the enjoyment of an opera seen live or on screen and the acting here is very good except for Marcus Haddock as Ruggero who seems to be forced into a role he is not comfortable with. As a minor point, because Magda has become my heroine by the end of Act 1, I would have preferred not to have the tragic ending in Act III.

This La Rondine was quite a revelation.

It incorporated extra duets and a reworked ending based upon material which Puccini included originally in three different versions of this opera (the 1917 version, the 1920 version, and the 1921 version). Clearly Puccini was never entirely satisfied with the form. He originally composed the opera with a bittersweet ending à la Der Rosenkavalier (with Magda giving up her love, knowing it could never be permanent and that she must settle for returning to her rich banker lover as his mistress). However, he kept tinkering with the work, and was considering an alternative ending with Ruggero discovering that "Paulette" (Magda's assumed name) was actually of the demi-mondaine. At the time of his death, he hadn't settled upon a preferred ending.

It's this material (the alternative ending) which Marta Domingo uses in this particular performance.

There is no doubt, I think, that the tragic ending in this version gives an entirely different feel to the opera. Instead of being (as originally intended by Puccini) something bitter-sweet, with an undertone of dissatisfaction and resignation, it becomes darker and more unexpected with Magda walking into the sea at the end, feeling that life holds nothing more for her.

While I think the first ending is more coherently linked to the plot and characters as a whole, there's no denying the impact of this alternative version. I found it very beautifully performed with gorgeous singing and beautiful sets. It's true that the acting is primarily based on "stock gestures" in this performance, but the final act makes up for that in its affecting portrayal. I felt that the director here was more comfortable with tragedy than with the lighter, rather cynical and wry first two acts.

Ainhoa Arteta, as Magda, is stunningly beautiful, both in looks and in voice. Richard Troxell is a marvellous Prunier - singing the cynical poet to perfection. Marcus Haddock as Ruggero (Magda's love interest) has a wonderful voice (his performance improves throughout the performance), and although he is perhaps not ideal physically, he certainly does justice to the role vocally. Inva Mula is a delicious and delightful Lisette (Magda's maid with some yearning for a life beyond picking up someone else's clothes).

I watched this DVD with great pleasure, and I definitely recommend it. 4 and a half stars.

Congratulations to the DC Opera, especially Marta Domingo, who directed; and, of course, the cast, headed by Ainhoa Arteta. The seldom-seen "tragic" ending stirred the heart. Definitely a singular sensation from direction to set design; I could continue, but you get the drift: stupenda.

Above average performance,not equal to the best available on CD.
Awaiting the Met version with Geoghieu and Alagna