Giacomo Puccini
Welsh National Opera
Venue Cymru, Llandudno
October 12, 2024, 2 hrs 35 mins
WNO's presentation of two of the three one-act operas that make up Puccini's Il Trittico offers contrasting works that when offered with the third, Il Tabarro, tug at the heartstrings in many ways.
In omitting the third piece, WNO here offers pieces with little connection - indeed they couldn't be much more opposite; one, Suor Angelica a tragic story of a nun, the other, Gianni Schicchi, an uproarious comedy featuring one of Puccini's best-loved arias. Seeing them side-by-side engages interest and emotion in different ways.
The environment Suor Angelica belonged to would be seen as strange in today's materialistic, secular society. Here is a community that lives an other-worldly existence, relating to the heavenly realm more than the earthbound.
The first part picks out the mundanity of convent life, slow moving and reflective, while the second focuses on the tragic experience of Sister Angelica, forced into a convent seven years previously to hide the shame on her rich family by having a child outside marriage. Angelica is a picture of devotion, but her world is shattered when her aunt visits to tell her the child she loved and gave up has been dead for two years.
Natalya Romaniw is outstanding as Angelica, and the passion she invokes stands in stark contrast to the quieter, steadier music depicting convent life. The opera highlights the injustice meted out to women when they have a child in unorthodox circumstances: as a matter of rule she takes the blame, no matter what happened to her in becoming pregnant. It also illustrates beautifully the mother's love for her child.
Gianni Schicchi, in complete contrast, is based on an historic event at the time Dante wrote The Inferno. Dante suggests a person is sent to hell because he impersonates someone in order to benefit from their will.
Signor Buoso Donati has just died and left his estate to the local monastery. His surviving relatives are appalled and dismayed as they contemplate the shame they will face. So they reluctantly engage Schicchi to sort out their mess. He impersonates Buoso, to fool the local doctor into believing Buoso is still alive; then they engage a notary to draft a new will. Schicchi, playing the role of Buoso then distributes the estate but leaves the most profitable parts to himself, much to the chagrin of the family which is powerless to change the situation for fear of breaking the law, having their hand cut off and being exiled.
In the middle of the chaos comes the famous aria from his daughter, Lauretta, O mio babbino caro, sung beautifully by Haegee Lee. There will be a happy ending, as Lauretta now has a suitable dowry to marry her betrothed, a young Donati, while the rest of the avaricious family are left to contemplate their ill fortune. Dario Solari as Schicchi is strong, savvy and uncompromising, while Trystan Llyr Griffiths is great as a bumbling Rinuccio, Lauretta’s love interest.
The casts of both operas are excellent, warming to their task and communicating the stories superbly and with Puccini’s desire to take the audience through a range of emotions. Once again from WNO, a thoroughly enjoyable evening. It would be a crying shame if they did not make the journey to North Wales again in the near future.
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