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Congratulations to Opera Holland Park. They are not afraid to perform operas outside the usual repertoire. Two years ago they performed Puccini’s short first opera _Le Villi_ as part of a

double bill. Now they have put on his second, _Edgar, _which premiered five years later in 1889. This was before _Manon Lescaut_ in early 1893, his first international success, for which he

had a new team of librettists. For _Edgar,_ however, Puccini was still working with Ferdinando Fontana, whose text was based on the verse play _La Coupe et les lèvres_ (“The Cup and the

lips” — an allusion to what can go wrong before it goes right) by the French dramatist Alfred de Musset. It is a story of chivalry disgraced and redeemed, along the lines of Wagner’s

_Tannhäuser_. Like Wagner’s hero, indulging himself with Venus while pining for Elisabeth, Edgar is torn between the sensual love of Tigrana and the faithful love of Fidelia. Ultimately, in

a clever plot twist, he realises that it is only Fidelia who understands his real nature. Tigrana seems perfectly sincere, but at the end when bribed with jewels by Edgar’s rival Frank and

the Curate, who can’t stand him, she confirms the lie that Edgar had betrayed his country for financial gain. By this time Edgar appears to have fallen in battle, but all is not as it seems

and the Curate in particular is shown to be a base liar. The original version of this opera had four acts and was only tepidly received. Puccini reworked it into three acts, and continued

revising it until the great success of his later operas convinced him to give it up. He could not rescue the opera from its libretto, and in 1905 referred to it as “warmed-up soup”, adding

that it was “unbelievable trash”. Yet the music has wonderful moments, and Puccini learned a valuable lesson: if the libretto fails to inspire you, then you can waste months or even years of

valuable time turning it into an opera. Thereafter he worked closely with his librettists, but this opera was a vital stepping stone between _Le villi_ and the fully-fledged lyricism of

_Manon Lescaut_. At Opera Holland Park, Peter Auty made a bold Edgar, Anne Sophie Duprels a gentle and beautifully sung Fidelia, and Julien Van Mellaerts exhibited effortless lyricism as

Frank. The role of the sex symbol, Tigrana, was given robust authority by Gweneth Ann Rand, enabling us to see the dichotomy between sacred and profane love that must have inspired the

30-year old Puccini. Musically this worked very well under the baton of Naomi Woo, with stage direction by Ruth Knight and excellent lighting by Mark Jonathan. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We

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