Le Villi, Opera by G. Puccini
Le Villi, a two-act opera by Giacomo Puccini, was revised by the great composer several times before it was finished in its definitive form, the one that is being used for this production at Verona's Teatro Filarmonico. The premiere took place on 31 May 1884 at Teatro dal Verme in Milan after Puccini had submitted his score for a competition organised by the music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno, who was looking for new one-act operas. Puccini, then an unknown composer, conceived Le Villi as an operaallet but his submission didn't hit any high notes with the competition's judges. Nevertheless, the opera was staged and was enthusiastically received by its audience.
Due to the initial success of Le Villi, Puccini's opera was published by Giulio Ricordi, an editor and musician who ended up running Casa Ricordi, an Italian music publishing house. It was Ricordi who instructed Puccini to expand the scope of the opera. Changes were made in 1884, its first revision, with further modifications the following year, its second. In 1889, Puccini revisited Le Villi once more, finalising his ideas into the two-act opera that is much admired to this day.
The plot of Le Villi is supplied from a libretto written in Italian by Ferdinando Fontana, who adapted the story from a Germanic legendary tale. Le Villi is a term that relates to fairies who place a spell on a young man, Roberto. He had promised a young woman, Anna, his eternal love. However, he falls under a siren's spell during a long journey away from home. Anna waits for him but approaches death, heartbroken at his loss. Eventually, she is transformed and a deadly curse ends up sealing the fate of her former lover.
The tragedy of the situation is one that Puccini excels at expressing. His melodies work well with Fontana's lyricism and this is particularly noteworthy in the two-act version of the opera which allows the maestro more space for the woeful story to unfold. Le Villi may be one of Puccini's earlier works but it is full of orchestration that is symphonic in many ways. Audiences can hear the composer's style already in Le Villi and the techniques he would go on to hone during his illustrious compositional career.
The Teatro Filarmonico, located in the heart of Verona, is a superb venue for a production of one of Puccini's lesser-produced works, Le Villi.