On Saturday afternoon I went to the Met Opera to hear a performance of Il Trittico, Puccini's trio of one-act operas consisting of Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi. The performance was a near anniversary of sorts - it took place almost exactly 100 years after the work's world premiere at the old Met opera house on December 14, 1918 when Geraldine Farrar sang the title role in Suor Angelica and Claudia Muzio the part of Giorgetta in Il Tabarro.
Puccini was always quick to note new developments in opera. Eighteen years before, having witnessed the success Leoncavallo and Mascagni had enjoyed with their verismo operas, Puccini had followed suit with Tosca. But this was not enough. Feeling his two rivals' success may also have been due in part to the brevity of their compositions, Puccini resolved to write his own set of one-act operas. In this, he was strongly opposed by his publisher Giulio Ricordi, and it was not until after his death in 1912 that Puccini was able to move forward with his project. Italian that he was, he first envisioned three pieces that would correspond with the three sections of Dante Alighieri's immortal poem. In the end, however, only Gianni Schicchi had any association with the Divina Commedia and only a peripheral one at that.
The first work to be completed, with libretto by Giuseppe Adami, was Il Tabarro. As with Tosca, it may have been the lurid subject matter that most tempted Puccini. As early as 1912 he had become interested in the play La houppelande by Didier Gold and had described it as "an apache piece." Later he wrote to his long time associate Luigi Illica:
"[La houppelande is] almost - and really - Grand Guignol. But that doesn't make any difference. I like it, and it seems very effective to me."
When it came time to work on the next two operas, Puccini chose as his librettist Giovacchino Forzano who provided original stories for both Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. According to the Met's program notes, it was Forzano who convinced a reluctant Puccini to take on the story of Gianni Schicchi, a character who appears very briefly in the 30th canto of the Inferno. The composer eventually grew more enthusiastic, perhaps because the story hearkened back to his original idea of an adaptation of the Divina Commedia, and Gianni Schicchi ultimately proved to be the most popular of the three operas.
The last time I saw Il Trittico in the 1980's, Teresa Stratas sang all three leads magnificently, but at this performance they were apportioned among three different mezzo-sopranos. Of these Kristine Opolais stood out in title role of Suor Angelica. Her rendition of Senza mamma, bimbo, tu sei morto was flawless, and she had strong support in her part from Stephanie Blythe as the Princess.
The real star of the show, though, was Plácido Domingo in the title role of Gianni Schicchi, another of his late baritone roles. Seemingly ageless, he fully commanded the audience's attention during his time onstage. After all the great dramatic roles in which he has appeared, it was fascinating to watch him here masterfully take on a comedic part.
The conducting of Bertrand de Billy was a bit better than when I saw him conduct Verdi's Luisa Miller last season but it was still far from satisfactory.
Jack O’Brien’s production was extremely handsome and well thought out, one of the best I've seen at the Met recently. The set for Suor Angelica was especially pleasing even if the vision of the sister's dead son at the conclusion was a bit trite. And the use of an ascending stage at the end of Gianni Schicchi worked very well. I didn't see the point, however, in randomly updating the settings. After all, the interior of a Catholic convent couldn't have appeared much different in 1938 than it had in 1918. This was a minor point, though, and didn't interfere with the audience's enjoyment. In fact, if I hadn't read the program notes I probably wouldn't even have realized that the action had been updated.
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