Life after love: a devastating La rondine from Pappano and the LSO

La rondine is one of the least loved of Puccini’s mature operas. His whimsical take on operetta calls to mind both the great Viennese tradition, but also flavours of La traviata and Manon. No-one dies, but despite – or because of – this, the depiction of heartbreak so familiar to many is all the more agonising: infatuation and a brief bliss that lasts until reality, doubt and the past force their way in. The future is shattered and two people who may have been so happy have to live among the wreckage of broken possibilities. The third act with its final duet of intolerable anguish matches anything else that Puccini wrote. We know that Ruggero will not heal, that Magda has turned away from one devoted to her every happiness, and that we are powerless, railing in futility against the inexorable power of fate.

La rondine isn’t seen enough and, in this centenary year, what better way both to commemorate the great man’s death and to celebrate the first season with the London Symphony Orchestra of that Puccini interpreter par excellence than to see a concert performance under Sir Antonio Pappano. Serendipitously, he and the LSO have history with this work, making their first recording together nearly 30 years ago, and his love for it was palpable in every note of the first of two performances at the Barbican. 

A week ago, news emerged that our original Magda, Nadine Sierra, had to withdraw for health reasons; Carolina López Moreno stepped in at little notice and delivered a knockout performance. Singing completely off book, she was spellbinding, living the part for us, giving us the most deeply felt and nuanced performance possible. Moreno has a touch of smokiness to the voice that enhances the palette across a range of emotions: a wry playfulness with Lisette, a sultriness with Ruggero in Act 2 and an edge of despair across Act 3. Moreno showed a powerful, generous soprano with plenty of power at the top, and smooth phrasing – a triumphant LSO debut that was justly acclaimed.

Michael Fabiano has a high international reputation and brought a robust, clarion tenor to Ruggero, though it was not immediately clear that the role was a fit for his voice. His “Parigi! È la città dei desideri” was punchy, but lacked a certain lightness; he seemed more comfortable in Act 2 in a surprisingly passionate (for a concert performance!) encounter with Moreno, and his devastation in Act 3 saw his voice at its strongest, diction always clear throughout. Paul Appleby’s voice is a smaller instrument which may cause an issue in a large house; at the Barbican, he largely managed to stay audible and showed a fragrant, rather delicate tenor, a quirky and subversive Prunier to Serena Gamberoni’s Lisette. 

Gamberoni’s soprano is marginally steely in places, but was deployed with swagger, and always enjoyable. Ashley Riches’ Rambaldo was suitably unpleasant, while Sarah Dufresne, Angela Schisano and Marvic Monreal all impressed in smaller roles, and the chorus seemed to have more fun than a puritan might deem acceptable in a crisp and well-drilled Act 2.

Despite some very impressive singing, this was Pappano’s night. Swirls of silk were billowed at us, wafts of incense hazing across the Parisian landscape that he conjured so effortlessly. The detail – glorious flutes, string glossiness and the richness brought out in Puccini’s writing for percussion – combined with a sense that the music had so much space to breathe, and yet so much drive behind it, while also supporting, enhancing his singers. Such aural decadence! And a privilege to watch Pappano conducting Puccini outside the pit. This was an exhilarating and heartrending concert that drove me to book a ticket for the second performance tomorrow.