Puccini: Le Villi

With his first stage work "Le Villi", the young Giacomo Puccini struck a chord with his contemporaries. His sure feeling for poignant melodies made him the bearer of hope for a new generation of Italian opera composers. He masterfully set the gruesomely beautiful legend about an unfaithful fiancé who is killed by the frenzied dance of the Willis - elemental spirits haunting the Black Forest - to captivating music. On October 13, a few weeks before the centenary of the composer's death on November 29, 2024, the Munich Radio Orchestra presented the two-act version of "Le Villi" in concert at the Prinzregententheater. Anita Hartig, Kang Wang and Boris Pinkhasovich performed the solo parts; the Bavarian Radio Choir took part; conducted by the chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, Ivan Repušić. BR-KLASSIK is now presenting the live recording of this extraordinary concert on CD to mark the 100th anniversary of the great Italian composer's death. "Le Villi" was composed in the fall of 1883. 25-year-old Puccini, who had just passed his final exams at the Milan Conservatory, entered it in a one-act play competition organized by the publisher Sonzogno, but came away empty-handed. The premiere of the one-act version on 31. May 1884 at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan was nevertheless a sensational success, as the music is remarkable in its charming melody and tonal magic. Admittedly, the dramaturgy of this "opera ballo" was probably too unusual for a lasting stage career. The sensational success quickly faded and could not be revived even after several reworkings (the two-act version created in 1884, which was first performed on December 26, 1884 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, forms the basis of this recording). Nevertheless, this first work paved the way for paved the way for all Puccini's subsequent operatic triumphs.