La rondine (The Swallow)

La rondine is the only late work of Puccini's in a lighter genre and was commissioned by the director of a Viennese theatre. Composed during World War One, the lyric opera was premiered in the neutral territory of Monte-Carlo in the spring of 1917 and won the approval of the Cote d'Azur audience. Although its atmosphere evokes the world of Viennese operetta, its plot set in Paris and on the Riviera is more reminiscent of La bohème and La Dame aux Camélias. With virtuosic ease he weaves into his remarkably scored symphonic composition elements of contemporary dance music, including the waltz, tango polka and foxtrot. The Opera is now giving the work its first Hungarian staging since it was first presented in this country in 1927 at the City Theatre; in partnership with the Hungarian Opera of Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca).