When Puccini gave a copy of his early 1889 opera Edgar to a friend in later life, he wrote in Italian on the title page, “And may God preserve you from this opera!” In the wake of Opera Holland Park’s ...

While there are dozens of recordings of Puccini's later operas, the first two have had a thin time on disc. Now from Radio France on the Naive label come new recordings of Le Villi and Edgar, which ...

Opera Holland Park tries to make Puccini’s early failure work – with mixed results Even Puccini eventually disowned his second opera, Edgar. "It was an organism defective from the dramatic point of ...

The drawing card for anyone thinking of buying this set has to be tenor Placido Domingo, in what will likely be one of his final operatic recordings. At 65, the great Spanish tenor remains in very ...

First performed in 1889, Edgar was Puccini's second opera, and in the opinion of many his weakest. Puccini was given to rubbishing the score in later life, though in fact it prefigures many of his ...

Le Villi (The Willis or The Fairies) is an opera-ballet in two acts (originally one) composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by ...

Opera Holland Park has a long and proud tradition of bringing to public attention works by Italian composers whose own considerable talents were somewhat eclipsed by those of their contemporary, or ...

The libretto of Edgar is taken from a story by Alfred de Musset. The attraction must have been the contrast between the hero’s infatuation for the exotic temptress Tigrana, and the pure village maiden ...