Scottish Opera, 15/03/2023
Puccini : Il trittico
Chorus of Il trittico
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Stuart Stratford
It's quite rare to see the complete set of Il trittico - it's a long evening (not as long as Wagner, but close) and it's very demanding of resources - so this staging, entrusted to no less than Sir David McVicar, promised to be a rare treat. And the promise was fulfilled.
This is late Puccini, all his years of stagecraft distilled into three very different, individually strongly characterised short operas, and his mastery of the orchestra, and the latest compositional techniques, is something quite different from the bulk of his mainstream repertory. In these pieces, it becomes obvious what Puccini has absorbed from extra-mural influences, showing he was alert to what was happening in Paris or Vienna, and was able to integrate it into his own style with success and considerable impact.
Taken in the order Puccini intended, Il tabarro is a naturalist drama in the verismo style, Suor Angelica is a fairly static, but highly emotive melodrama, and Gianni Schicchi is a rollicking comedy with a lively satirical streak. I've seen them performed in a different order, and in my opinion it does not work, you need the progression from the brooding gloom of the first, through the affecting demi-tints of the second, to the joyous luminosity of the third, to make a really complete and satisfying evening, and the Scottish Opera productions once again validate that order. It's an insight into how subtle and complex Puccini could be, and done correctly, believe me, you do not notice the time passing. McVicar, throughout, plays it fairly straight, not trying to shoe-horn any extravagant ideas onto the proceedings, but bringing his usual sympathy and understanding of the music to bear in his stagings.
The first performance was in 1918; McVicar has set the three operas each twenty years apart, starting with Il tabarro in the 1930s. Charles Edwards's designs for this are severely plain, a wharf, with a bridge overhead to the left, an industrial background just visible past that, and the barge is seen pulling in at the start. The atmosphere is all in the lighting, beautifully judged. This is a classic, doomed, love triangle between soprano, tenor and baritone which, naturally, ends badly, with some colourful secondary characters nicely delineated by a cast taking full advantage of their possibilities. Notable amongst the character roles was the vibrant bass of Julian Close (Talpa), and Louise Winter's pragmatic Frugola, but the focus is, naturally, on the central trio. Viktor Antipenko was the Luigi, a big, valiant sound, though just a little overwhelmed right at the end of the duet with Giorgetta. Roland Wood brought a weighty, rich baritone voice to his beleaguered, suspicious Michele, but Sunyoung Seo was outstanding as the straying wife Giorgetta, with an opulent, creamy timbre and a fervent degree of expression, and the duet between the two of them was a highlight, full of pained gentleness and regret.
Sunyoung Seo (Giorgetta) and Roland Wood (Michele)
Il tabarro, Scottish Opera
(© James Glossop, 2023)
Of the three operas, Suor Angelica has always been the 'problem child', so to speak. It's very static, almost a conversation piece, but set in a convent, and set around a distressing topic, with a central confrontation between the title role and the high-society aunt who forced her into cloistered life, which brings terrible truths to light. The religious setting imposes certain things musically, and notably an all-female cast, and the piece as a whole lapses all too easily into excess sentimentality, something McVicar successfully avoided. In this staging, we were now in the 50s, though the main indicator of that was the Principessa Zia's costume, but such is the timeless nature of cloistered life. The thing I found a little peculiar was the physical setting which, although certainly in the severe setting of a convent, seemed to take place wholly in the entrance hall, which seemed slightly odd. However, McVicar placed this act within the context of the Magdalene laundries; at the outset, we see the nuns taking a new-born from its mother, and during the operas, there are four 'skivvies', washing, cleaning and ironing around the premises, all visibly pregnant save for the one whose child was removed at the start, and that was a powerful spotlight cast on the general situation of the opera.
As mentioned, the core of the opera is the confrontation between Angelica and her aunt. It's essential that the short, but vital role of the Zia Principessa be strongly cast, and for this, Scottish Opera brought out the big guns in mezzo Karen Cargill, coldly imposing, armoured against empathy. In general, for me, it's only from this point that this opera really comes alive. After this, everything rests on the shoulders of Angelica, as she progresses to her tragic end, and Sunyoung Seo again proved her worth in this long, impassioned sequence, with singing of great assurance and fervour, and a luminous tone. Seo had demonstrated such an earthy soprano timbre in Tabarro I was uncertain about her transitioning to Angelica, whose vocal line generally lies just a little higher, and which always tends towards the upper register, in keeping with her condition as a nun, and her aspirations. Seo encompassed this effortlessly, and her characterisation was very well handled, a submissive, impassive mask that gradually splinters over the course of the work. I'm still not convinced by Suor Angelica, and consider that it only really starts to come alive during and after that duo, but Seo brought everything she had to the conclusion, which certainly had some of the audience in tears, from what I could hear.
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| Sunyoung Seo (Angelica, front right) and cast Suor Angelica, Scottish Opera (© James Glossop, 2024) |
After that harrowing experience, the vivacity of Gianni Schicchi comes as a wonderfully acerbic palate-cleanser. Of the three operas, this is by far the best known, and is often performed with other partners than Puccini's operas. The story, of a quick-witted con artist taking advantage of a greedy, self-centred Florentine family, is lightly based on a couple of lines from Dante's Inferno, though English readers may also recognise something similar from Ben Jonson's Volpone. Puccini's sympathies are firmly with Schicchi, his daughter Lauretta, and her suitor, who is one of the venal Donati family, but whose only interest in money is so that he can marry his sweetheart.
If the 50s setting of Suor Angelica could only really be inferred, in Gianni Schicchi, the 70s have gloriously and outrageously vomited all over the set, the cluttered room of a compulsive hoarder. I think the only thing Edwards missed was an avocado bathroom set (because you could see the bathroom through right rear door). To enhance the effect, the set is even slightly skewed, with a distorted perspective that dizzies the eye, and emphasises the extravagance of the activities.
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| Roland Wood (Gianni Schicchi) and cast Gianni Schicchi, Scottish Opera (© James Glossop, 2023) |
Gianni Schicchi is habitually viewed as an ensemble cast piece, which is certainly true, but on the other hand, they are all distinct characters, or can be seen to be so with the right singer. Julian Close again brought that lovely sonorous bass to the pompous Simone, but with all due respect to Louise Winter, I do think Scottish Opera missed a trick by not getting Cargill to sing Zita. This is the matriarch of the clan, and very much the driving force, and Winter just didn't quite have that force to her.
The young lovers were sung by Francesca Chiejina and Elgan Llŷr Thomas. Chiejina appeared in all three operas, and although it's Lauretta who has the hit tune of the piece, it's difficult to make much of her dramatically. She sang the famous aria very nicely, with a warm, bright soprano, but had made a much stronger impression as the bubbly, friendly Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. Thomas was entertainingly nerdy as Rinuccio - it was quite clear who was going to be wearing the pants in that household - but although he's a tenor I generally like, having heard him in other productions here, the sound is a little thin. Rinuccio is certainly a lighter tenor voice than Luigi, but not this light.
What a delight, though, to have Roland Wood reappear in the title role. It's not unusual for the same singer to take on both Michele and Schicchi, but it's also a testimony to their versatility, to pass from the dour, explosive bargee to the wily, scheming trickster. Having seen his very successful Falstaff, I was confident Wood could pull off the humour of Schicchi, the two characters have a few things in common, and so it proved. He inveigled and bamboozled the Donati clan with aplomb and mischievous glee, and a royal timbre.
Musically, Il trittico is never exactly a cohesive evening, the styles are too disparate for that, but there needs to be, nonetheless, a single vision behind it all, and that has to be that of the conductor. That, we had, from Stuart Stratford, alert at all times to every nuance in every score, and looking for and bringing out the specific colours and textures from the orchestra at every moment. The orchestral participation was excellent, variegated and multi-coloured, a vivid tapestry full of subtlety and life, and a splendid connecting thread from start to finish. This has been, beyond question, one of the best shows Scottish Opera has put on in years; it has surely been an enormously taxing enterprise, but the end result is enthralling, a truly rewarding evening's experience.
[Next : 17th March]