With a talented leading couple and handsome contemporary design, Stuart Maunder’s new production makes for a welcome discovery or revisit.

Premiering in Monte Carlo in 1917, La rondine is a light, short opera whose plot is reminiscent of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Verdi’s La traviata – though with an ending that is neither so merry nor so tragic.

Kiandra Howarth in Victorian Opera’s La rondine. Photo © Charlie Kinross

Magda, the mistress of wealthy Rambaldo, dreams of true love, which she finds while incognito at a Paris nightspot. As a subplot romance between maid Lisette and the poet Prunier bubbles away, Magda and Ruggero run away to the Riviera. When he proposes marriage she regretfully declines, telling Ruggero about her past rather than letting the secret later ruin his life.

With Swedish Puccini expert Tobias Ringborg and Orchestra Victoria relishing relishing the score’s lush orchestration and romantic melodies, Kiandra Howarth makes her company debut as Magda. The Australian lyric soprano reveals the refined yet robust voice that is powering her international career.

Howarth’s vocal performance is notable for expressive, beautifully controlled dynamics and top notes that seem to float in the air. As both...