Word: gianni
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...frothy escapist fantasy composed in the shadow of World War I. The opera's interest stems from the emotional counterpoint between the longing for an unattainable past and a deep melancholy about the possibility of translating this past into the future. A similarly valedictory sense marks the humor of Gianni Schicchi, which responds to the tradition of opera buffa and becomes, in a sense, the terminus of this tradition...
...plot of Gianni Schicchi turns on the engaging protagonist, a wily peasant who thwarts the rapacious Donati, a family of Florentine landowners, in order to provide his daughter and her lover with the money they need to wed. All of the opera's characters are sharply delineated, with a delicate but mordant touch of satire--the greedy relatives (the Donati), the starry-eyed lover (Rinuccio), and the resourceful swindler (Schicchi...
...piece's comic possibilities suffer. The performance does not include a potentially hilarious scene with the Bolognese doctor, and the satirically repeated invocation of Simone's gravitas because he "was once Mayor of Fucecchio" slips by unnoticed. In contrast, Gianni's fingerless salute is just as funny the thirdtime 'round as the first. In addition, thepresence of Buoso's corpse allows for a nicecoup de theatre during the confusion of thelawyer's visit in the opera's final minutes...
...opera's greatest musical surprise is thepiano accompaniment. While Musical DirectorJefferson Packer acquits himself admirably with adifficult transcription of Puccini's notoriouslytreacherous score, there are some serious losses,Important effects are lost, like the chirpywoodwind passage when Gianni dispatches Laurettato go feed the birds, or the pealing of the tocsinthat sends the Donati into a frenzy (the latter isespecially confusing since the characters refer toa bell while the audience only hear a note in thepiano's bass register...
...stripped-down accompaniment soundrepetitive, and the occasional thinness ofPuccini's idiom, denuded of its instrumentalsparkle, is betrayed in passages such asRinuccio's aria--eerily reminiscent of Sir ArthurSullivan--or Gianni's unveiling of his plot, whichsmacks of cabaret music...