Chi il bel sogno di Doretta from La Rondine (1917)

La Rondine was commissioned in 1913 as an operetta for the Carltheater in Vienna – where, unlikely though it might seem for a Puccini score, it would have joined a repertoire dominated by Johann Strauss and Franz Lehár. In fact, because of the political problems caused by the fact that Italy and Austria had taken different sides after the outbreak of war in 1914, the first performance was given not at the Carltheater but on neutral ground at Monte Carlo in 1917. It was to be another three years before it was seen in Vienna (at the Volksoper), and even then it had little success. While it has little in common with Viennese operetta – since it is set in Paris even the waltzes are French rather than Viennese – it is a delightful score of chamber-music proportions and (for Puccini) unsually restrained in emotional expression and musical gesture.

The first scene takes place in the elegant salon of Magda de Civry, mistress of the rich banker Rambaldo – a relationship not uncommon in the cynical society of Second Empire Paris. So there is some incredulity among Magda’s guests when the poet Prunier declares that romance is back in fashion in and people are falling in love again. To illustrate his point Prunier sings the first part of his latest poem, which is about Doretta and a dream she has of refusing to be bought even for the riches a king can offer. Since Prunier hasn’t decided how the poem will end, Magda – who, though she doesn’t know it, is about to abandon Rambaldo for a student – takes up his theme in Chi il bel sogno di Doretta. It is such an exquisite expression of romantic love that not only Prunier but even the assembled sceptics are won over by it.