英国青年歌剧团《燕子》忠于原著

British Youth Opera's La Rondine sticks to the original version

相对与普契尼的其他作品，他的歌剧《燕子》是上演相对较少的一部。尽管该作品音调丰富和谐，却远不如其他作品那样流行。距第一次表演90年后，普契尼的这部抒情歌剧仍然挣扎在演与不演得边缘。其中的些许原因可能是由于其故事情节与《茶花女》过于接近。但同样的问题似乎并没有对普契尼的《玛依·莱斯科》造成影响，这部作品依然在歌剧院里持续着自己的演奏生命。更重要的原因或许是该部作品最后一幕的表演有着更严重的缺憾：歌剧随着情节的结束戛然而止，而普契尼的音乐未能达到令人满意的结局。如此一来，留给观众的正是结局的缺失感。这个追求完美的作曲家曾经几次尝试对此进行重大修改。然而歌剧团却倾向于表演原始版本，正如英国青年歌剧团所做的。

On September 5, La Rondine was revived at London's Peacock Theatre. Ninety years after its first performance, Puc- cini's lyric comedy still only hovers on the fringes of the repertory. Part of the reason is an unsatisfactory final act, which the perfec- tionist composer attempted to fix in a couple of major revisions. Yet opera companies tend to stick to the original version, as British Youth Opera did here. A young cast tackled the major roles with confidence. Meeta Raval brings an opulent lyric soprano and some presence to the title role, though her acting seemed to remain on the surface rather than emanating from within. As Ruggero, Telman Guzhevsky supplied puppyish enthusiasm.