This 2004 Glyndebourne
production was staged with another one act opera - Rachmaninov’s
The Miserly Night. Clearly there were practical considerations.
For a start both operas could utilise more or less the same
set thus saving time and money in scene changes in the small
environment that is the Glyndebourne opera house. Annabel Arden
and Jurowski in their interviews point out certain similarities
between the two operas including the fact that they both feature
rich old men who disinherit their families: one dying at the
end of the Rachmaninov and the other at the beginning of the
Puccini. I do feel though that they make heavy weather when
they attribute too dark an interpretation to the Puccini story-line
suggesting something of a political statement, assuming something
of a pre-taste of Mussolini’s Fascism; hardly, considering Gianni
Schicchi was composed as early as (1917-18). Gianni Schicchi
is, after all, essentially a black comedy after an episode in
Dante’s Inferno in which reference is made to a Buoso
Donati and a Gianni Schicchi, encountered in hell. Indeed, it
will be recalled that the last words of the opera, directed
to the audience by Schicchi, confirm that he has been sent to
hell because he has cheated Donati’s relatives of their inheritance
even though that old man had chosen to leave his wealth to a
monastery.
Gianni Schicchi
is the final part of Puccini’s triptych of three one-act operas
and it is on record that Puccini hated having them split and
performed separately. It has to be admitted, though, that Il
Trittico has never been eagerly embraced by impresarios.
Each opera lasts about an hour - that means a total of three
hours not counting the two intermissions, making a long evening.
Some have preferred to omit sweet sentimental Suor Angelica
- Puccini’s declared favourite of the three. This is a pity
because this quiet yet dark-edged centrepiece of the triptych
is a vital component of the whole. It takes the listener more
smoothly from the sombre lives and loves of the Paris barge
people and the gruesome murder at the climax of Il Tabaro
(The Cloak) to the broad comedy of Gianni Schicchi
But to this production
... and what a joy it is. The action and movements of the grasping,
scheming relatives are choreographed cleverly for maximum comic
effect. Their singing is very much ensemble so that they virtually
become a chorus. And interestingly Puccini is here developing
and refining his skills as a choral music writer, skills that
would be further refined for his last opera Turandot,
that followed Il trittico. Slapstick humour leavens
any darkness with the dead inert body of Donati being undignifiedly
pulled and pushed around in his death bed as the relatives look
furiously for his hidden will, and falling out of a cupboard
where he has been hidden while Schicchi takes his place to dupe
the notary, and the death bed being thrust hither and thither
across the stage. The production is in modern dress – i.e. contemporary
with Puccini’s era - rather than the original Puccini staging
that was medieval Florentine
Alessandro Corbelli’s
Gianni Schicchi is delightfully, slyly roguish, just short of
going over the top. His mordant ‘In testa la cappellina’ in
which he delights in his new-found power to convince the doctor
and then the notary that he is Donati, is a delight. Massimo
Giordano is a handsome brute of a Rinuccio and his aria in praise
of Florence, ‘Firenze è come un albero fiorito’ rings out with
heartfelt fervour. Felicity Palmer as his dreadful, snobbish
Aunt Zita, is suitably overpowering in voice and action. The
show-stopping ‘O mio babbino caro’ is warmly and sympathetically
delivered by Sally Matthews in the role of Schicchi’s daughter,
Lauretta.
A delightful humorous
and warm production of the final part of Puccini’s Il trittico.
Pity we could not have had Il tabarro and the sublime
Suor Angelica as well.
Ian Lace
Gianni Schicchi…Alessandro
Corbelli
[74:00]
