Riccardo Chailly continues his reconnaissance of the Puccini catalogue in the centennial of the composer’s death with one of his less frequently performed titles. A work that was long and difficult to create, La rondine is Puccini’s response to a request for an operetta from the Carltheater of Vienna in 1914: later re-thinkings and world events—most notably the outbreak of the First World War—transformed the project, which was finally premiered in Monte-Carlo in 1917. The ambiguous nature of the opera initially compromised its audience appeal, but the agonizing desperation of the melancholic score, running under a surface of sublime elegance, is now better appreciated, as did Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who conducted it in 1994.