A lyric comedy in three acts Libretto by Giuseppe Adami Music by Puccini
(deitails overleaf) La Rondine, the immediate successor to The Girl of the Golden West, was first produced in 1917, performances being given at Monte Carlo, Bologna, and Milan. It had a curious history, being first undertaken at the request of a Viennese publisher who was anxious for Puccini to write musical comedy. After some hesitation Puccini, having fallen out for .the time being with his own publishers, agreed to write -an operetta on what wa« originally a book for a musical comedy. When war broke out in 1914 the original contract was cancelled, the book was altered, and the finished opera was sold to an Italian firm. The story begins in Paris during the Second Empire, where the heroine, a derni-mondame, is living under the protection of a rich banker. In the second aot there is a quartet which the composer believed would rival that at the end of the third act of La Boheme.
('The Swallow')
A lyric comedy in three acts
Libretto by Giuseppe Adami
Musdc by Puccini
(sung in Italian) students, artists, men about town, grisettes, dancers, waiters
Chorus and Orchestra of Radio Italians, Turin
(Chorus-Master. Ruggiéro Maghini)
CONDUCTOR, NINO SANZOGNO
The action takes place in Paris at the time of the Second Empire
Act 1
An degant apartment in Magda's house
Act 2
Chez Bullier: the baHroom
Act 3
A cottage on a hill overlooking the Côte d'Azur