The second opera by the visiting Croatians at the Savonlinna Opera Festival was Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Gianni Schicchi”. This opera is performed rather regularly, so I did not expect any great surprises.
The story of the opera is also simpler than that of Busoni’s
“Harlequin”. Buoso Donati has died and his relatives are horrified, when they
find his will, where he leaves everything to the monastery. Gianni Schicchi is asked
to help them and he figures out a way to fix things. He pretends to be Buoso
and dictates a new will to the notary, where cash is divided between the relatives,
but the most valuable parts of Buoso’s fortune is given to “my good friend Gianni
Schicchi”. The relatives are furious, but they cannot do anything, since they
have agreed to falsify the will, which is a crime. But thanks to the false
will, the young man of the family is allowed to marry Schicchi’s daughter, who
is now a rich heiress.
Schicchi’s direction (Fabrizio Melano) was in no level
unusual or especially interesting, but it could be called a standard stuff. Again
I cannot say that the singers were superb, but the opera was definitely a lot
more entertaining than “Harlequin”. And soprano Darija Auguštan sang Lauretta’s famous aria ”O
mio babbino caro” really beautifully, though I was a bit surprised, when the
audience started their applause before the aria even ended, but I suppose, not
everybody knows how it ends. All in all, the opera left a nice aftertaste, even
though it was not a great artistic triumph.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti