As the years went by, I guess I lost hope of ever seeing Puccini’s La Rondine in a fully staged production in Melbourne. But that’s now settled and many would be scratching their heads wondering why it isn’t performed a tad more often after seeing Victorian Opera (VO) bring it to sparkling life on the Palais Theatre stage on Thursday night.
It isn’t, however, without its challenges but it certainly crossed the line with a vibrant ensemble led by two powerful leads – radiant Australian soprano Kiandra Howarth as the courtesan Magda and a stunning introduction to Korean tenor Won Whi Choi as her lovestruck Ruggero.
My first encounter with La Rondine came in the form of a fine 1966 recording featuring Italian stars Anna Moffo and Daniele Barioni. And only once I’ve seen it – in a small but pulsating production by California-based Island City Opera in Alameda back in 2019.
Across its three acts, lots of lush, swooning and melodically delightful passages make up its musical form but Giuseppe Adami’s libretto is somewhat problematic in establishing the connection between the two romantic leads too tardily and a dramatic restlessness is indeed felt in the odd, mercurial quality and uneasy flow in demarcations of changes of action that similarly arise in Puccini’s score.
By the time La Rondine premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 1917, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly had already made Puccini a household name. But hints of them shine through so vividly in La Rondine – as do threads of what was to come in his final opera, Turandot – that they can distract from and diminish the work’s creative strength. Or thankfully enrich it? It didn’t help that artistic priorities were in the throes of much change with the Great War in progress.
Nevertheless, the darting rhythms and shifts of mood resonated excellently under conductor Tobias Ringborg’s command. The only trouble came with the timing between stage and orchestra in the early stages of Act 1 but a bursting, diligent Orchestra Victoria made the most of a rare performance. The strings especially impressed, capturing the score’s inbuilt elegance with fullness and vigour.
In La Rondine, love and happiness can neither be taught nor bought no matter how much life is glamourised on the exterior. Magda di Civry, the carefree but conflicted courtesan and protagonist, knows.
Not unlike Violetta Valéry in Verdi’s similarly mid-19th century Parisian setting of La Traviata, Magda falls in love and begins a new life with a passionate young gentleman. Whereas Violetta is robbed of love through conservative societal attitudes and terminal illness, Magda gives it up on her own, unable to find comfort in a life in which the past might catch up. She blames herself and decides on a return to her former existence.
Just as in La Bohème, another romance plays out in contrast. Like adding salt to the wound, love seems to come so much easier for Lisette (Nina Korbe) and Prunier (Douglas Kelly). They, like Magda and Ruggero, belong to different classes – she a servant in Magda’s household, he a poet and aesthete.
But in the end, if it’s one thing, it’s Magda’s personal burden that gives this operetta oddity its greatest substance – with her embodying ‘La Rondine’, the fleet-flying swallow.
Artistic Director Stuart Maunder brings a laudable and refreshing, contemporary feel to the work which gets underway with the idea of romance being back in fashion. Richard Roberts’ chic linear sets and costumes blending classic and modern are always eye-catching and Gavan Swift unearths ample mood, including the joyous sense of fireworks, as part of a winning lighting design.
Act 1’s cocktail party setting in Magda’s Parisian salon is a rather skeletal affair but Act 2 explodes with rambunctious brilliance at Bullier’s night spot despite its peculiar mix of impoverished students, elegant and leggy young women and sleazy rich elderly men. Here, the VO Chorus are in premium form for their only appearance, whipping up a thrilling account of Puccini’s music and filling the stage with convincing detail.
After Act 2’s encounter, in which you’d have to agree that Magda is bonkers for getting involved, the initial bliss and subsequent fracture between Magda and Ruggero’s relationship in Act 3’s Riviera setting – where they have been living together for several months – is the point at which the greatest potency emerges.
Howarth builds her performance into an intoxicating force, exhibiting both the worldly and world-weary with divinely crafted vocal elegance, astute dynamics and a luminous top, whether silken or fiery of expression.
Choi is welcome back any time. Having reached the heights of New York’s Met Opera, this serendipitous encounter with Choi in his company debut shows off a voice infused with intense ardency and richly sculptured character as an idealistic Ruggero who remains tied to his mother’s apron strings.
Korbe is delightfully coquettish and takes exuberant control in lush form as a Lisette of simple ambitions. Kelly continues to develop maturely with a handsome performance as the affable and cheery Prunier, although projection suffers intermittently from the rear stage, while baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes carries a distinguished air as Magda’s rich fancy man but is somewhat heavy on the ears.
La Rondine can charm indeed. In the end, when Roberts creates a stage picture of lasting poignancy as Magda stares out the window of her Paris apartment behind a sheer stage curtain while Ruggero is in heartache on his knees in front of it, your heart goes out to him.
But denying him of his dreams as she does, Magda makes you feel that it was for the best. Perhaps more than the conservative moralising she assumed was her enemy, marriage and kids were obviously the last straw. There’s only one more chance to see it and it’s well worth the effort.
La Rondine
Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
Performance: Thursday 8 August 2024
Season continues to 10 August 2024
Information and Bookings: www.victorianopera.com.au
Images: The Cast of La Rondine – photo by Charlie Kinross | Douglas Kelly, Kiandra Howarth and Teddy Tahu Rhodes in La Rondine – photo by Charlie Kinross | The VO Chorus in La Rondine – photo by Charlie Kinross | Douglas Kelly and Nina Korbe in La Rondine – photo by Charlie Kinross
Review: Paul Selar