Puccini started La Rondine the year before the First World War broke out. By the time he finished in 1916, Italy had not only entered the war but swapped sides. In 1914, Italy was historically allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary but had declared its neutrality. By 1915, Italy joined the Triple Entente with Britain, France, and Russia. La Rondine’s strange mixture of sentiment and cynicism feels of a piece with the larger international context. The opera swaps sides, too, starting as a comedy and then ending, abruptly, as a tragedy—with a weepy breakup instead of a death. Puccini was dissatisfied with the ending; he rewrote it twice in the five years after its premiere in 1917.

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