PUCCINI: “La Rondine.” Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu...

PUCCINI: “La Rondine.” Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu and others; London Symphony, Antonio Pappano, conductor. (EMI) * *1/2

Puccini’s “La Rondine” has failed to capture public interest. Yet any encounter with the music, especially when sung as beautifully if unevenly as here, raises the question, why? Composed after “Boheme,” “Tosca” and “Butterfly,” the opera (a shadowy “Traviata”) has craft, tunefulness and elegance. Yet it finally fails to engage the emotions the others do. Hence its obscurity.

Gheorghiu sounds ravishing in the big tune, “Chi il bel sogno di Duretta,” and in passages of suffering but elsewhere sounds thin and dry. Alagna sings with dark-toned ardor and ringing tone, but also with effort and strain. Surprisingly, the husband-and-wife team are never at their best together.

The supporting cast is strong, with soprano Inva Mula and, particularly, tenor William Matteuzzi excellent as the subsidiary lovers.

Pappano conducts with sweep and ardent attention.

The set also contains “Morire?” (a first version of an aria Puccini added to the opera later) and excerpts from “Le Villi,” his early opera-ballet that shows both future promise and dreadful imitation.

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