プッチーニの初期作品『妖精ヴィッリ』の、初稿版からのリコルディ再構築版を使用し134年ぶりに上演、リリース!

1883年、25歳のプッチーニは師ポンキエッリの薦めで「ソンジョーノ・コンクール(一幕ものオペラのコンクール)」に応募、『妖精ヴィッリ』の作曲に取り掛かります。しかし、締め切りまでに完成させることができず、未完成の譜面を送ったものの敢え無く落選。しかしボーイトの尽力により1884年に初演され大好評を博しました。その後、リコルディ社と契約を結び、作品を「2幕版」に改訂し、現在ではこちらの形が知られていますが、この演奏は1幕ものの初稿版をMartin Deasyが再構築、オリジナルの形での初上演となったものです。(アルバムには、2幕版にするために付け加えられた3つのアリアも含まれています)主役のアンナを歌うのは、若手注目のソプラノ、エルモネラ・ヤホ。愛するロベルトに捨てられたアンナの悲しみを見事に歌い上げています。ロベルト役のソゴモニアンも軽薄な若者を見事に演じ、アンナの父親グリエルモを歌うマリガンは、知的で賢明な人物を的確に表現しました。妖精たちの踊りと恋人たちの愛の場面を彩るロンドン・フィルハーモニー管弦楽団を見事にコントロールするエルダーの指揮も聴きどころです。忘れられたオペラに光を当てるOperaRaraレーベルらしい企画です。
ワーナーミュージック・ジャパン

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2019/07/22）

True to its advertising, the company Opera Rara specializes in rare operas. That category might not seem to apply to Puccini, but Le Willis, the original 1883 version of what became his first full-length opera, Le Villi (1889), has apparently never been recorded and perhaps has never even been performed since its original reading. That was for a contest for one-act operas that Puccini entered while still a student. He didnt win, but the music attracted the attention of Arrigo Boito, among others, and was eventually expanded into Le Villi as it is known today (itself not often performed). You can see why: it doesnt take long before you can guess who the composer is even if you havent looked at the graphics. The opening prelude wont quite do it (Puccini was accused, accurately enough, of aping Wagner here), but the vocal numbers that follow are pure Puccini, with many nice touches of orchestration and lush, passionate vocal lines. There arent really arias, but there is a corker of an ensemble preghiera (sample Angiol di Dio). The story concerns the titular spirits, respelled more idiomatically as Le Villi when the opera was rewritten, who torment Roberto, a young Black Forester, after he leaves town and falls into the clutches of a temptress. His fiancee dies of grief in the meantime. This development is not sung but is recounted in a pair of orchestral interludes, which here come in the middle of the opera, bringing the action to a screeching halt. In Le Villi, they become an entracte. The three lead singers (the fiancees father is the other major character) are attractive and take into account the small dimensions of the work; best of all is Sir Mark Elders way with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Elder has an instinct for Puccini, and those who love this composer will want to explore here how clearly present his distinctive voice was even at this early stage. Two numbers from the 1889 version are offered as an appendix.

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