Edgar: Live In Gran Teatro Giacomo Puccini, Torre del Lago Puccini, Tuscany, Italy

Plot Summary

Edgar, Puccini's second opera, was composed on a commission from the publisher Ricordi after the successful reception of his first stage work, Le Villi. The original version had four acts and was tepidly received. In January 1890, Ricordi published a revised version, including a different ending for Act 2. In the autumn of 1891, Puccini revised the work again, cutting the last act and producing a three-act version which would again be revised in 1905. Parallels to Bizet's Carmen are numerous. Both operas feature a confused young man (tenor: Edgar, Don José) who is struggling to choose between the pure chaste love of his home town girl (soprano: Fidelia, Micaëla) and the consuming passion of an exotic gypsy (mezzo-soprano: Tigrana, Carmen). A resounding success is what Puccini Gran Theatre's audience, of over three thousand, reserved for this production, fruit of a beautiful choral work that saw a major player in Roger Dean whom imagined and created fabolous sceneries helped by Vivien Hewitt who was responsible for directing and a cast made of the most beautiful voices in the panorama of international opera, directed by Pier Giorgio Morandi’s excellent baton.