Newspaper Article

Opera Review; New Twists on a Rarity From Puccini

SWED, MARK

2000

Overview

With an infestation of Butterflies and Bohemians at local opera companies in recent seasons, less familiar and lesser Puccini has suddenly become a welcome change. \"Manon Lescaut\" found its way to Opera Pacific last month; \"Il Tabarro\" gets the Long Beach Opera treatment in June. And Saturday night, Los Angeles Opera brought the composer's seldom-encountered \"La Rondine\" to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Rare as \"Rondine\" is, this \"Rondine\" is rarer still. The production by Marta Domingo gives an entirely new twist to the ending of Puccini's Italian \"Rosenkavalier.\" If \"Rondine\" weren't so unfamiliar to most audiences, this is just the kind of thing that could get some operagoers very upset. Changing the decor in an updated production is one thing; changing the actual opera is something else. Inspired by Strauss' \"Rosenkavalier,\" Puccini wanted a Viennese- style bitter-chocolate confection of his own. The libretto, about a Parisian mistress who tries unsuccessfully to recapture her innocent youth in a new relationship, is a poor one. Puccini labored with it through three versions of the opera. He also suffered bad timing. Premiering during World War I, the opera seemed an escapist entertainment just as the world was undergoing a radical shift.

• Publisher: Los Angeles Times Communications LLC
• Subject: La Rondine / Opera