THE announcement that Puccini’s “La Rondine” will be postponed to 2022 comes with the additional news that it will be performed at Canberra Theatre.
National Opera’s Peter Coleman-Wright and Stephanie McAlister had been hoping the covid situation would allow the long-planned opera to go ahead from October 21-25 in Llewellyn Hall, a notably unsuitable venue for operatic performance, as the recent season of “La Clemenza di Tito” proved.
Now they say negotiations will allow “La Rondine” to be performed at Canberra Theatre on March 17, 19 and 21.
A sort of cross between “La Traviata” and “The Merry Widow”, it’s a love story involving Magda, a high-society woman kept in a grand style by an older man. She meets a young and unsophisticated man at a soirée and they fall deeply in love. Magda is forced to decide between love or a life or luxury.
The company expects to keep the same team of cast and creatives, which means, following the withdrawal of Lorina Gore as Magda, that rising Australian star, Lauren Fagan, will sing the lead role.
Gale Edwards will continue as director and Dane Lam will return to conduct the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.
“La Rondine”, Canberra Theatre, March 17, 19 and 21. Bookings not yet open, but details at nationalopera.org.au/rondine/
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