Puccini - La Rondine / Te Kanawa · Doningo · Nicolesco · Nucci · Rendall · L. Watson · G. Knight · LSO · Maazel
List Price:
Our Price: $29.99
You Save: $2.99 (9%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $17.75 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: Giacomo PucciniConductor: Lorin Maazel
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra: Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Performer: Kiri Te Kanawa
Performer: Placido Domingo
Performer: David Rendall
Performer: Leo Nucci
Performer: Mariana Nicolesco
Performer: Lillian Watson Gillian Knight
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: CBS (Sony Classical)
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Act One (Yvette, Bianca, Prunier, Magda, Lisette, Rambaldo, Ruggero) - G. Puccini
- Act Two (Magda, Ruggero, Prunier, Lisette, Rambaldo) - G. Puccini
- Act Three (Magda, Ruggero, Lisette, Prunier) - G. Puccini
Music reviews of Puccini - La Rondine / Te Kanawa · Doningo · Nicolesco · Nucci · Rendall · L. Watson · G. Knight · LSO · Maazel
Music Review: Sumptuous . . . well-sung . . . exasperating
Rating: 3 Stars
Source: Studio recording issued as a CBS Records Masterwork.
Sound: Perfectly satisfactory DDD stereo.
Documentation: Libretto in Italian, English, German and French. Photographs of Domingo, Te Kanawa, Nicolesco, Maazel and Puccini. Essay on the creation of the opera by Barrymore Laurence Scherer. Nothing on the circumstances in which the recording was made. No date is provided, not even a copyright symbol.
Format: Disk 1 - Act I, one track, 38:15; Act II, one track, 29:45. Disk 2 - Act III, one track, 35:17.
This recording appears to be out of print, just as the opera is inexplicably out of the standard repertory. "La Rondine" is a marvelously good opera that would be regarded as a masterpiece from any composer less identified with the profitable operatic mainstream than Puccini. As a Puccini opera, alas, it is sadly lacking in hit tunes.
"La Rondine" is commonly regarded as Puccini's operetta and discounted for that reason. However, anyone listening to this in the hope of hearing an Italianate "Merry Widow" will be quickly disabused of that notion. Puccini, himself, is quoted as saying that he would never write an operetta, but that he would do a comic opera on the lines of "Der Rosenkavalier." He did, in fact, catch at least one quality of "Rosenkavalier," the long, dying fall of an extended farewell.
D. L. Scherer's accompanying essay advances the interesting notion that "La Rondine" is in some ways a sequel to "La boheme." The time is twenty years later. Rodolfo, now called Prunier, has become a prosperously successful poet. (Hacking out libretti for for Donizetti and Verdi, perhaps?) He has achieved much, but is uncomfortably aware that he has also lost much of what he was. Musetta (Magda here) has achieved comfort, security and even a form of love, but she yearns for the taste of a final romantic fling--if not necessarily the whole messy adventure. Magda inevitably finds herself sitting in a popular cafe while flirting with an attractive young man. As Scherer aptly points out, "Puccini must have had a devil of a time setting ... the second act ... for the temptation to indulge in self-borrowing must have been great."
The big names among the cast are Tiri Te Kanawa and Placido Domingo, with Leo Nucci in a supporting role. All three sing very well, as expected. All three are, at best, generic in their performances, as also expected. The remaining cast members are all good-sounding professionals and wholly forgettable.
The Ambrosian Opera Chorus and the LSO sound fine.
Maazel's conducting is admirable and self-consistent, but I could wish for a little more of "Boheme's" raucousness and a little less of "Rosenkavalier's" wistfulness.
Even with my minor reservations about the singers and the conducting, I would normally assign this recording five stars. I have not done so because this is one of the most exasperating operatic packages I've ever encountered. Look at the track list: three tracks for three acts! Sony or CBS (or whoever) seems to be laboring under the impression that the opera is on audio cassette, not CD. Look at the timing. If ever a second disk demanded a filler, this one does! And yet there is nothing.
Things that otherwise would be nitpicks loom large in this set. What is with the date? I suspect that the set comes from the late 1980s, but why aren't we told? And the cover illustration! It is clear that the opera is set in the Paris of Louis Napoleon, about 1860. Why, then, do we see a young man in a three-cornered hat and a woman dressed appropriately for, say, 1770? (Starveling little Opera d'Oro regularly inflicts that kind of silly error; a self-respecting, major recording company should not.) The whole thing smacks of an indifference to the buying public that boarders on contempt.
More Puccini - La Rondine / Te Kanawa · Doningo · Nicolesco · Nucci · Rendall · L. Watson · G. Knight · LSO · Maazel free music reviews:
1 2
1 2
Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.89
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.93
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Puccini: La Rondine - The Metropolitan Opera Live 2008Virgin; Release date: 2010-10-12; DVD
Best price: $15.45
Price in other shops:
Massenet - Manon / Cotrubas · Kraus · Quilico · van Dam · Capitole de Toulouse · PlassonRelease date: 2002-11-11; Music CD
Best price: $89.99
Giacomo Puccini: Manon LescautRelease date: 1984-10-18; Music CD
Best price: $66.98
Puccini: La BohèmeRelease date: 1994-04-12; Music CD
Best price: $11.37
Price in other shops:
Puccini - Turandot / Sutherland · Pavarotti · Caballé · Ghiaurov · Krause · Pears · LPO · MehtaPAVAROTTI,LUCIANO; Release date: 1990-10-25; Published: 1990; Music CD
Best price: $23.54
Price in other shops:
Verdi: NabuccoRelease date: 1984-03-12; Music CD
Best price: $22.91
Price in other shops:
Misa TangoRelease date: 2000-10-05; Music CD
Best price: $10.87
Price in other shops:
Mozart - Lucio Silla / P. Schreier · Gruberova · Bartoli · Upshaw · Kenny · HarnoncourtRelease date: 1991-06-25; Music CD
Best price: $11.81
Price in other shops:
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin ~ LevineRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $20.86
Price in other shops:
Wolf-Ferrari: Il Segreto Di SusannaRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $15.99
Price in other shops: