PUCCINI AND THE SWALLOW

While in Vienna in 1913, Puccini visited to the Karl Theater to see an operetta. While there he was approached by the directors of the theatre to compose an operetta for them to be based on a libretto they would supply. It should be easy for him because much less music would be needed, only eight or nine pieces, and he would get the property rights and a very large fee. Because his German was poor, Puccini used a friend, Baron Eisner von Eisenhof to help him negotiate.

Soon a libretto was sent to Puccini but on further thought he wrote to Vienna, "I shall never compose an operetta, A comic opera, yes like Rosenkavalier, but more amusing and organic". In other words, he would not write a piece with spoken dialog but a piece in which everything is sung. The first libretto was put aside and a second one submitted by Vienna. This was by Alfred Willner and Heinz Reichert, and Puccini accepted it based on Act I alone. According to the agreement, the first version was to be produced in Vienna in German as an operetta. Puccini engaged Giuseppe Adami to write the Italian version, not only translating but adapting as necessary, including the elimination of the prose passages. He would use this to write the music and then it would be translated back into German for the Vienna première.

Act I was completed by the autumn of 1914 but, as of August, Europe had been at war. Then in May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. With Italy and Austria on opposite sides prospects for the work became iffy. Puccini didn't care, he was apolitical, but he wondered what would happen "given the present frightful state of things due to this horrible war". However, work continued.

There was a lot of concern with the story during the writing, Puccini said Act II was not very beautiful and the form was not very perfect, not the drama it should be, lacking vitality and variety, there was too little animation. He suggested finding a scene other than Bullier's. It wasn't terrible; he just wasn't happy with it. In the end they left Bullier's as the local but added more lively music. The Act III was judged 'useless' at first; Puccini thought the end didn't have conviction. At one point he considered returning the contract to Vienna but, by August 1915, had finished Act III and thought it very good. He said of the ending that it "approached quietly and delicately without any orchestral blaring or screaming". Finished in October 1915, Puccini described the result as "a light, sentimental opera with touches of comedy ... agreeable, limpid, easy to sing, with a little waltz music and lively and fetching tunes, a sort of reaction against the repulsive music of today". He thought it would do well in London because it was "a melodious opera and the subject is a moral one".

Because of the war, the première was moved to a nominally neutral country, Monaco, and La rondine finally opened in Monte Carlo on March 27, 1917. Well received by public and press, with twenty curtain calls, Puccini said it was a great success. It then went to Buenos Aires. At the first Italian performance in June 1917, the public liked it but not the critics. La rondine finally reached Vienna in 1920 after the war with changes which included moving the setting from the mid nineteenth century to the 'present'. Today La rondine is Puccini's least performed opera, and he himself called it "my dear, forgotten child". Some critics described it as bad Lehár.

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Revised October 2007
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