Love found, lost in IU Opera

“La Rondine,” the operetta by Giacomo Puccini, follows the story of two lovers linked to each other despite the social conventions of the time.

But not even love will save them from the lies that threaten to tear them apart.

The show opened Friday and features two more performances  8 p.m. March 5 and 6 at the Musical Arts Center.

The story follows Magda, who lives in turn-of-the-century Paris as mistress to her wealthy lover, Rambaldo. While throwing a party, a young man named Ruggero arrives. The son of Rambaldo’s old friend, Ruggero looks for a recommendation for places to visit in Paris.

Ruggero goes to a popular café, where Magda follows him, disguised as a working woman. She singles out Ruggero, and the two converse all night. They run away together to Nice, leaving behind the lives they knew.

But not all is well in their separate world. When Ruggero asks Magda to marry him, she confesses to a lack of virtue in her past. She refuses to destroy his life by marrying him and forces him to leave, while she remains alone by the sea.

Despite its heartbreaking finale, much of “La Rondine” is light.

David Effron, chairman of the instrumental conducting department in the Jacobs School of Music, led the orchestra through tangos, waltzes and other dance forms.
“This opera was commissioned to be an operetta, which means closer to a musical than an opera,” Effron said. “If you played the music without the singing, you wouldn’t know it was necessarily an opera.”

Puccini focused on orchestral colors to tell his story by using groups of instruments to represent different aspects of the tale.

He also repeatedly used leitmotifs, melodies repeated to represent specific characters.

IU’s new production also features an ending different from the traditionally performed finale. Instead, it focuses on Magda rather than Ruggero.

Vincent Liotta, head of the opera stage directing program at IU, said the new ending makes more sense with what has come before it.

“Puccini was never really satisfied with the ending,” Liotta said. “For this performance, we have taken a combination of the various endings that he proposed as a way to give the opera both a bittersweet and strong finish.”

Meghan Dewald, who portrayed Magda in Friday’s performance, said a key reason for Puccini’s continued popularity is his skill with drama.

“The singer doesn’t have to say ‘I’m afraid, I’m heartbroken, I’m happy’ for the audience to know that,” she said. “The orchestra plays the emotion.”

For Liotta, “La Rondine” is Puccini at his most mature.

“In short, for me it is a neglected masterpiece that I believe more people should have the opportunity to fall in love with,” Liotta said.