A bittersweet love story between operetta and lyrical opera.

Although one of his most consistently lyrical operas, La Rondine (The Swallow) remains one of Puccini’s least known. Dissatisfied with the results of his work, Puccini wrote three versions, with two different endings, and continued to make further revisions up to his death in 1924.

The innovative 2007 production at Torre del Lago Giacomo Puccini Festival, presented in this programme, is in effect a fourth version, which combines Act I and II of the first version (1917), with Lorenzo Ferrero’s 1994 orchestration of parts of the finale of Act III oft he incomplete third version (1921), some of which had survived only in piano score, as well as Ruggero’s Act I romanza "Parigi è la città dei desideri", from the second version (1920).

With the collaboration of Naxos