La Rondine: Parigi! E la Citta dei Desideri (Romanza di Ruggero; second version, 1920)

The three-act operetta LA RONDINE (The Swallow) by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was first completed in 1916 and premiered at the Grand Th??tre de Monte Carlo on March 27, 1917. It tells the story of Magda, a Parisian courtesan, who is torn between more transactional love she has chosen and the romantic love of a wife with the young man Ruggero, whom she meets at a small house party of her protector Rambaldo, then again at a Paris nightspot. After leaving to live with Ruggero for some time, she flees back to Rambaldo when Ruggero proposes marriage, declaring that she cannot keep her past a secret and she will not allow her previous life to bring grief to both Ruggero and his parents. Never satisfied, Puccini revised the operetta in both 1920 and 1921, altering the ending each time, and he passed before he settled on the definitive version. The beautiful tenor aria PARIGI! ? LA CITT? DEI DESIDERI (Paris! It is the city of desire) was not included in the original libretto and added by Puccini to give Ruggero, the romantic lead, something to do in the first act. While it does not move the plot forward, the aria does quickly endear listeners to the Ruggero character. The aria was later cut from the opera and is not usually heard in staged versions, although the music was used again with different text in Puccini's 1917 song MORIRE?, S. 89. This edition of the aria by Michael Kaye is from the second version (1920) of the opera.