La Rondine

Peacock Theatre, London
3 out of 5 3

Ninety years after its first performance, Puccini's lyric comedy still only hovers on the fringes of the repertory. Part of the reason is an unsatisfactory final act, which the perfectionist composer attempted to fix in a couple of major revisions. Yet opera companies tend to stick to the original version, as British Youth Opera does here.

  1. La Rondine
  2. Peacock Theatre,
  3. London
  1. Final performances tonight and Thursday. Box office: 0844 412 4322.

Set in Second Empire Paris - updated in John Lloyd Davies's production by 50 years or so - La Rondine (the swallow) describes how kept woman Magda leaves the lap of courtesan luxury to run off to the Riviera with the penniless Ruggero. In the last act, they hit the twin buffers of conventional morality and financial reality, and Magda returns to her former life.

Though the ending does not convince either dramatically or musically, the first two acts, set in Magda's salon where the lovers meet and the Parisian dance hall where the affair is clinched, are vintage Puccini, scored with the glamorous hyper-sophistication of his late style. The dance rhythms carry a fragrant erotic charge; the ensembles drip with nostalgia. The Southbank Sinfonia presents the delicious result fluently under conductor Peter Robinson.

A young cast tackles the major roles with confidence. Meeta Raval brings an opulent lyric soprano and some presence to the title role, though her acting looks applied from without rather than felt within. As Ruggero, Telman Guzhevsky supplies puppyish enthusiasm and a promising Latin tenor of vibrant quality. Sadhbh Dennedy makes a good deal of Magda's stagestruck maid Lisette, and Jonathan Sells ably sketches in Magda's wealthy protector, Rambaldo. The three good-time gals who frequent Magda's salon - played here by Laurie Ashworth, Melanie Lang and Michelle Daly - are great fun.

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