France Puccini, Il trittico: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of Opéra nationwide de Paris / Carlo Rizzi (conductor). Broadcast stay from the Opéra Bastille (directed by Mathilde Jobbé-Duval) on 16.5.2025 and obtainable till 16.6.2025. (JPr)
Christopher Loy makes his Paris Opera debut with Puccini’s Il trittico the place it has not been seen since 1987. Nonetheless, this manufacturing originated in Salzburg in 2022, and it explains why there may be usually a single set for every opera because it was designed to fill the Grosses Festspielhaus’s stage. Among the forged from 2022 had been now repeating their roles.
Once I final wrote about this trio (triptych!) of one-act operas I posited that ‘Whether or not Il trittico gives an ideal evening on the opera is dependent upon the person involved as a result of two-thirds of the night (every particular person opera lasts just a little beneath an hour) may be very downbeat with the lightest of sunshine aid hopefully offered by Gianni Schicchi bringing all of it to a detailed on the finish.’ These final phrases have my added italics as a result of Loy’s present order is uncommon and begins with a joyously comical Schicchi, earlier than the darkly melodramatic Il tabarro and the emotionally overwrought Suor Angelica.
There appears to be no actual cause for the three to be carried out collectively, although that’s what Puccini needed and what seems to hyperlink them is that every entails a hid demise. It was additionally how Il trittico was first staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1918. Was Puccini’s inspiration waning at that time in his life and perhaps he had nothing else to fill a night. Musicologist Alexandra Wilson has mirrored how: ‘Most significantly we want to remember the truth that this was a piece through which Puccini was casting a nostalgic and at occasions ironic eye throughout his profession as an entire. Il tabarro harks again to the gritty Puccini final heard in Tosca, whereas Suor Angelica elevates the archetypal sentimental Puccini heroine to new heights. Gianni Schicchi, in the meantime, presents a veritable kaleidoscope of various musical types, some extra trendy, some intentionally old style, its lightness of contact recalling the second act of La bohème.’
It’s fairly widespread to see simply Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi sometimes on their very own, or collectively, or with a special opera. Placing on Il trittico in a single night presents fairly a problem, due to the trio of fairly dissimilar quick operas. In Paris this problem isn’t just for the director Loy but in addition soprano Asmik Grigorian who unusually sang (as at Salzburg) in all three as Lauretta (Schicchi), Giorgetta (Tabarro) and Sister Angelica.
Gianni Schicchi relies on an incident talked about in Dante’s Divine Comedy and begins as the rich Buoso Donati has died and the grasping relations gathered at his deathbed have heard rumours that every one his cash is being left to some friars. After this proves true, the lowly born Gianni Schicchi is their solely hope. Lauretta, his daughter, is in love with Rinuccio, Buoso’s nephew. Lauretta makes a heartfelt plea (sure, ‘that’ tune!) for her father’s assist. Schicchi explains they will nonetheless alter Buoso’s will and since nobody else apparently is aware of of his demise, Schicchi can costume as Buoso, climb into the mattress in a darkened room and make any adjustments earlier than a notary and two witnesses. There are actually solely minor requests from this ‘Buoso’ to the relations whereas every part vital is left to … ‘Gianni Schicchi’. After the notary leaves, the relations riot and set upon Schicchi. Nonetheless, all through all of this he has reminded the household how critically the authorities would view these shenanigans in the event that they had been to be discovered.
Étienne Pluss (units) and Barbara Drosihn (costumes) appear to take us into the world of Italian comedy movies of the latter a part of the 20 th century. An enormous – virtually naked – room other than a central mattress and the self-seeking relations, principally in black, sitting to the aspect consuming spaghetti. There may be not a lot to rummage by way of when searching for the desire or take away on the finish after they don’t get what they anticipated: although the room is ransacked for something that may be moved together with two large candlesticks. On the finish of the opera Schicchi has recovered virtually every part that was taken and suggests to the viewers that if they’ve loved themselves, he could also be forgiven for his crime within the ‘extenuating circumstances’. Rinuccio and Lauretta – who’ve stayed with him after everyone else leaves – are beneath the cover on the mattress.
Il tabarro (The Cloak) is a drama of lust and jealousy and doubtless essentially the most uncared for of the triple invoice. All of the motion needs to be on a barge moored on the Seine. Bargee Michele is distraught over the lack of his spouse’s affection and continues to be grieving the demise of their younger son. His spouse goals of escaping her dispiriting life on the barge and embarks – with tragic penalties – on an affair with the stevedore, Luigi. We don’t get an particularly Parisian backdrop and no actual hyperlink to Schicchi other than the time interval it’s set in. There is identical three partitions as earlier than, now with a big barge on one aspect and a steel staircase on the opposite with an all-pervading claustrophobic environment. Michele’s staff are offloading some furnishings onto the streetlamp lit quayside together with a regular lamp, chest of drawers, desk, chairs and sofa, creating one thing of an odd front room for many of the motion to happen in. Pressure builds inexorably earlier than a lighted match in all of the gloom causes Luigi’s untimely arrival for his assignation with Giorgetta which ends up in his violent demise and being hidden beneath the cloak which is the opera’s title.
For Suor Angelica we have now the three naked partitions and a door on the again wall somewhat as in Gianni Schicchi, although as a substitute of some large patio doorways there may be now a small window on excessive. With only a few tables and chairs and a few potted crops to at least one aspect it reveals us the bustling lifetime of the nuns within the convent the place Sister Angelica was despatched after the delivery of an illegitimate son. As Puccini (and Loy) ratch up the stress in direction of the powerfully emotional ending, I felt – and count on many of the remainder of a watching viewers did – emotionally drained and there certainly needs to be nothing to observe this. Sister Angelica – who can be damned if she took her personal life – right here gouges her eyes out with scissors and embraces the son she thought lifeless although can now not see.
The three – primarily ensemble – operas had been sung by a variety of clearly achieved singers with some showing 3 times. The tour de drive from Asmik Grigorian underlines how she is without doubt one of the biggest voices of the twenty-first century. Even when not sufficient of an ingénue for Lauretta, her ‘O mio babbino caro’ was earnest and appealingly persuasive; she was extra at house within the depth of the blonde, sexually annoyed, if nonetheless considerably grief-stricken Giorgetta who hopes for a cheerful future with Luigi, ardently and persuasively sung by Joshua Guerrero; and in case you see Grigorian sing Sister Angelica’s deeply-moving ‘Senza mamma’ – as she prays to be united along with her baby she thinks lifeless – within the Butterfly-like denouement, it’s one thing you can see onerous to overlook. Most significantly. she is such a convincing actor and absolutely embraces every character. Certainly, every opera was fantastically acted by all involved.
I’d take too lengthy to say all of the singers, suffice to say that in Gianni Schicchi Alexey Neklyudov and Misha Kiria stood out within the skilled ensemble; the previous with Rinuccio’s impassioned paean to Florence, ‘Firenze è come un albero fiorito’ and the latter’s Gianni Schicchi because the epitome of opera buffa in placing his supposed betters of their place. As most jealous and heartbroken Micheles in Il tabarro are, I discovered Roman Burdenko considerably boorish and one-dimensional – each vocally and dramatically – although this in all probability is extra Puccini’s fault than that of the singer. Once more, there was nice ensemble singing in Suor Angelica, nonetheless there was a significant disappointment within the efficiency of Karita Mattila as an eerily uncaring, suitably haughty Princess who chewed the surroundings with a extremely histrionic efficiency from a seemingly totally different manufacturing. Sadly too, her present uneven voice is now a mere shadow of what it was and Mattila’s coolness throughout the curtain calls steered a reluctance to cross the soprano baton to Grigorian.
Elsewhere catching the attention and ear was Enkelejda Shkoza in intriguing vignettes because the mercenary Zita, the unhinged La Frugola and the strict Monitress. The forged had been an fascinating mix of youthful expertise and veteran singers and amongst the latter how fantastic it was to see and listen to the Fricka and Erda from Pierre Boulez’s 1976 Ring, Hanna Schwarz, because the unyielding Abbess.
The whole lot I heard was after all by way of loudspeakers, however the Paris Opera Orchestra sounded as in the event that they had been on their greatest type and collectively nonpareil conductor Carlo Rizzi and his musicians introduced scrupulous consideration to element, Puccinian lyricism, wealthy orchestral color and environment to every impeccably-paced work; whether or not it was the excessive jinks of Gianni Schicchi, heightened ardour of Il tabarro, or the (eventual) guilt, solemnity and grief of Suor Angelica.
Jim Pritchard
Featured Picture: Paris Opera’s Suor Angelica © Guergana Damianova
Creatives:
Director – Christof Loy
Set design – Étienne Pluss
Costume design – Barbara Drosihn
Lighting design – Fabrice Kebour
Dramaturgy – Yvonne Gebauer
Refrain grasp – Ching-Lien Wu
Casts:
Gianni Schicchi
Misha Kiria – Gianni Schicchi
Asmik Grigorian – Lauretta
Enkelejda Shkoza – Zita
Alexey Neklyudov – Rinuccio
Dean Energy – Gherardo
Lavinia Bini – Nella
Manel Esteve Madrid – Betto
Scott Wilde – Simone
Iurii Samoilov – Marco
Theresa Kronthaler – La Ciesca
Matteo Peirone – Maestro Spinelloccio
Vartan Gabrielian – Pinellino
Luis-Felipe Sousa – Guccio
Alejandro Baliñas Vieites – Amantio di Nicolao
Il tabarro
Roman Burdenko – Michele
Asmik Grigorian – Giorgetta
Joshua Guerrero – Luigi
Andrea Giovannini – Il Tinca (‘Tench’)
Scott Wilde – Il Talpa (‘Mole’)
Enkelejda Shkoza – La Frugola (‘The Rummager’)
Dean Energy – Music Vendor
Ilanah Lobel-Torres – Lover
Suor Angelica
Asmik Grigorian – Sister Angelica
Karita Mattila – The Princess
Hanna Schwarz – The Abbess
Enkelejda Shkoza – The Monitress
Theresa Kronthaler – The Mistress of the Novices
Margarita Polonskaya – Sister Genovieffa
Ilanah Lobel-Torres – Sister Osmina
Lucia Tumminelli – Sister Dolcina
Maria Warenberg – The Nursing Sister
Lavinia Bini – First Arms Sister
Camille Chopin – Second Arms Sister
Lisa Chaïb-Auriol – A Novice
Silga Tīruma – First Lay Sister
Sophie Van de Woestyne – Second Lay Sister
