Video: Get A First Look at The Met's LA RODINE

Watch as Angel Blue sings an excerpt from Magda’s Act I aria in the final dress rehearsal. Production: Nicolas Joël, conducted by Speranza Scappucci.

Puccini’s bittersweet love story makes a rare Met appearance, with soprano Angel Blue starring as the French courtesan Magda, opposite tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his highly anticipated company debut as Ruggero, an idealistic young man who offers her an alternative to her life of excess.

Maestro Speranza Scappucci conducts Nicolas Joël’s glittering 1920s staging, which transports audiences from the heart of Parisian nightlife to a dreamy vision of the French Riviera. In their Met debuts, soprano Emily Pogorelc and tenor Bekhzod Davronov complete the sterling cast as Lisette and Prunier.

Each of the three acts of La Rondine evokes a different aspect of French life, as well as a different take on the nature of love. Act I is set in Magda’s elegant salon;  Act II is set in the raucous Bal Bullier, a famous Latin Quarter dance hall; and Act III is set outside Nice on the French Riviera. The Met’s current, Art Deco­­–inspired production places the action in the 1920s.

The score of La Rondine is sophisticated and economical—and entirely engrossing. It flows with the sort of melody that could only come from Puccini, including the dreamy dance sequences in Act II and the ensemble in the same scene, “Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso,” as well as the opera’s most famous aria, Act I’s “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta.”

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