Gramophone Magazine
July 2025
Editor's choice

Anita Hartig (Anna), Kang Wang (Roberto), Boris Pinkhasovich (Guglielgmo)
Munich Radio Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Chorus, Ivan Repušić

With his first stage work ‘Le Villi’, the young Giacomo Puccini instantly struck a chord with his contemporaries. His unerring instinct for deeply moving melodies made him a beacon of hope for a new generation of Italian opera composers.

In this ‘opera ballo’ he masterfully set to music the gruesomely beautiful legend of an unfaithful fiancé who is killed by the frenzied dance of the “Willis” - elemental spirits haunting the Black Forest. On October 13, 2024, a few weeks before the centenary of the composer's death on November 29, the Munich Radio Orchestra presented a concert performance of the two-act version of ‘Le Villi’ at the city’s Prinzregententheater. Anita Hartig, Kang Wang and Boris Pinkhasovich performed the solo parts, the Bavarian Radio Chorus sang, and the Munich Radio Orchestra played under its chief conductor, Ivan Repušić. To mark the 100th anniversary of the great Italian composer's death, BR-KLASSIK is now presenting the live recording of this extraordinary concert on CD.

‘Le Villi’ was composed in the autumn of 1883. The 25-year-old Puccini, who had just passed his final exams at the Milan Conservatory, took part in a one-act opera competition organised by the publisher Sonzogno, but came away empty-handed. The premiere of the one-act version on May 31, 1884 at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan was nevertheless a sensational success, largely due to the magical sound of the music and the charming melodies.

Admittedly, the dramaturgy of this ‘opera ballo’ was probably too unusual for it to remain in the stage repertoire for very long. Its sensational success quickly faded and could not be revived even after several reworkings (the two-act version created in 1884, and first performed on December 26 of that year at the Teatro Regio in Turin, forms the basis of this recording). Nevertheless, this first work paved the way for all of Puccini's subsequent operatic triumphs.

"This new Le Villi from Munich, it should be said at the outset, is the finest recording of Puccini’s first opera since Lorin Maazel’s 1979 performance, long regarded as the benchmark version of this uneven if oddly compelling work." - Gramophone Classical Music Guide, July 2025