La Rondine - Finale - Alternate Version

Ainhoa Arteta and Marcus Haddock perform the controversial alternate conclusion to Puccini's La Rondine. Rather than Magda making the sacrifice by leaving Ruggero because as a courtesan she can't enter his respectable home, Ruggero learns of her past via a mysterious letter and denounces her. Magda then choses death over returning to a man (Rambaldo) who treats her like a possession.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Puccini
• La
• Rondine
• Ainhoa
• Arteta
• Marcus
• Haddock

[tomonetruth]

nice to see this version, but i'm going to stick my neck out and share my preference for the "happier" ending. it's not that it's more realistic, just that i can empathise with the sadness of separation more easily than the need to commit suicide. i find the tragic normality (?) of the "happier" ending more moving (sadder, in fact) than this alternative, which seems a bit fantastic to me.

having said that, this is still sublime.

[raythespian]

Very effective finale, but it doesn't seem appropriate for an operetta, even a serious operetta.

[BenRagunton]

Interesting... This is the first time I've heard this version. While it's good, I find that I prefer the other where Magda leaves Ruggero to go back to Rambaldo. I saw the Met production of that with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu from a couple of years ago and Alagna's acting was so amazing that my heart broke for him when Magda leaves. It will be hard for me to see an ending that will equal the power of that production and performance.

[georgependill]

@raythespian Puccini was commisioned to do the operetta. He pulled out, but took what he had written, and the lebretto and completed as an opera. So, for me, this version is so much more powerful.

[stamman2]

This is NOT an Operetta......Please, please, don't think of it as such>>>>>

[miafaaa]

Per me...........Uno spettakolo migliore che esiste....Ainhoa..........è una favola.Уникальное исполнение...переворачивает всю душу.....и наматывает нервы и кишки на локоть.....простите.......

[raythespian]

@walkm - OK, so it's an opera (lite). This scene in itself is gloriously melodramatic and I love wallowing in it. However, it's tacked on to a story that is simply not serious enough to justify it.

[walkm]

@raythespian THIS IS NOOOT AN OPERETTA... THis is a opera.

[PecsMaster]

I am just amazed that by switching the singing parts with altered text, that this amazing second ending could rise from the same music - provoking completely different emotions through tempi and volume. From my analysis - there is nothing different in the music at all - except one vocal line of music not sung - giving a real dramatic pause.

[aristopus]

Imagine a chick like this on her knees, crawling toward you, begging forgiveness. Do you think she'd ever refuse you sex? Yet the snob turns his back and rejects her because of "horror." Ass-hole.



[aristopus]

@raythespian When did Puccini ever write operetta? He wrote this in the dead middle of WWI. Do you think the greatest composer at the time would be in the mood for operetta? Over 60 million casualties: killed, wounded or missing in action.

You have to consider history.

[irvingsteinberg]

As with most Puccini, there must always be a body count at the end of his operas, not to mention a bit of sadism towards his female characters. The first version is best though I wonder what the incomplete 3rd version does?