Puccini: Gianni Schicchi (Jurowski)

Introduction

Puccini`s one act comic opera, which formed the second half of Glyndebourne`s double-bill on the theme of greed during their 2004 season. It is based on an episode in Dante`s `Inferno`.

This piece concerns the squabbling by the Donati family over the inheritance left by their dead relation Buoso. Each member has their eye on their favourite properties and belongings (including the mule..one of the `properties`, not a member of the family), and this includes Rinuccio, who is in love with the daughter of Gianni Schicchi, a renowned scoundrel. It is, however, this scoundrel who is asked to sort out the last will and testament of Buoso, as the old git has left all his money to the monks of a local abbey. The family is disgusted by the idea at first, but soon warm to the man as he comes up with a foolproof, but highly illegal way of altering the will. He quickly sees how awful the family actually is, and manages to wangle a large part of the fortune for himself, purely to see his daughter happy.

Video

The video quality is absolutely fine and is presented in NTSC 16/9 Anamorphic. The staging is ingenious, in thet it flips around from the first act opera, creating a completely different set using the simplest of moves, and it was a pleasure to see some colour as compared to the dour and rather grey setting for the previous Rachmaninov.

Audio

The sound is again near-on perfect, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on top form (and definitely helped by an interpretation from Jurowski which doesn`t fall into the trap of dwelling on the familiar Puccini sentimentaility). Voices are well balanced and never get swamped by the orchestra, even when it`s in full flow (possibly helped by clever microphone placement).

Features

Extras include interviews with the cast and a booklet explaining the story of the opera, and this production. Also included is an illustrated synopsis, with commentary, cast gallery and subtitles in 5 languages.

Conclusion

Gianni Schicchi was originally composed as the final part of an operatic triptych ( `Il Trittico` - parts one and two being `Il Tabarro and `Suro Angelica`), but in this performance was shown with a relatively unknown Rachmaninov opera `The Miserly Knight` (also reviewed).

Again, I`m ashamed to say that this was relatively unknown to me, apart from the justifiably famous aria `O mio Babbino caro` (which doesn`t have its concert introduction in the real thing I`ve discovered, and loses nothing for that), but it`s now something I will be quite happy to watch several times, as it`s a near perfect as you can get for a short musical story.

The performances overall are spot on, ranging from Felicity Palmer`s brilliant and rather scary Zita to the scheming and very lovable eponymous Schicchi (looks a lot like a mix between Walter Matthau and Jummy Durante, and is an able comedian, getting several laughs from the audience). The obvious highlight of the piece is `O mio Babbino caro`, and Sally Matthews receives a deserved ovation once she`s convinced her father that he should do whatever she sees fit. Shame that her boyfriend Runuccio (Massimo Giordano) seems a little light, but perhaps this could be a deliberate character trait rather than a voice weakness. The rest of the ensemble enjoy themselves tremendously.

As with the Rachmaninov that preceded this, Matilde Leyser plays a large part, although
this time it`s of the rather lively corpse who is manhandled appallingly throughout the opera.

And so copying and pasting the end of my Rachmaninov review, I cannot recommend this outright either. If the two works can be performed in one evening, then they should have been packaged together. It`s a bit much to ask to pay twenty quid (although it should be easy to find online outlets which undercut the RRP by a good percentage) for an opera that lasts for not even an hour - despite the quality of the performance. A medium such as this should take full advantage of what it can do for home entertainment, and I`m sure the audience for this type of release would appreciate better value for money. Anything wrong with rehearsal footage? Or perhaps a documentary on the full version of `Il Triticco`? As with `The Miserly Knight`, a great disc, but a failed opportunity to do more.