Puccini: Le Villi (complete opera)

With his first stage work Le Villi, the young Giacomo Puccini instantly struck a chord with his contemporaries. His unerring instinct for deeply moving melodies made him a beacon of hope for a new generation of Italian opera composers. In this 'opera ballo' he masterfully set to music the gruesomely beautiful legend of an unfaithful fiancé who is killed by the frenzied dance of the 'Willis' - elemental spirits haunting the Black Forest. On 13 October 2024, a few weeks before the centenary of the composer's death on 29 November, the Munich Radio Orchestra presented a concert performance of the two-act version of Le Villi at the city's Prinzregententheater. Anita Hartig, Kang Wang and Boris Pinkhasovich performed the solo parts, the Bavarian Radio Chorus sang, and the Munich Radio Orchestra played under its chief conductor, Ivan Repušić. To mark the 100th anniversary of the great Italian composer's death, BRKLASSIK is now presenting the live recording of this extraordinary concert on CD.

Le Villi was composed in the autumn of 1883. The 25-year-old Puccini, who had just passed his final exams at the Milan Conservatory, took part in a one-act opera competition organised 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, largely due to the magical sound of the music and the charming melodies. Admittedly, the dramaturgy of this 'opera ballo' was probably too unusual for it to remain in the stage repertoire for very long. Its sensational success quickly faded and could not be revived even after several reworkings (the two-act version created in 1884, and first performed on 26 December of that year at the Teatro Regio in Turin, forms the basis of this recording). Nevertheless, this first work paved the way for all of Puccini's subsequent operatic triumphs.