Word: schicchi
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Student opera--the phrase is enough to unnerve the most stolid opera lover. Yet this year's Dunster House production of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and La Rondine proves a delightful exception. With gratifyingly competent singing and acting illuminated by two stellar performances, the Dunster House production is a rare musical offering...
...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...
...former rugged individualism." The opera invites easy comparisons. There is a tape-erasing scene (David's awakening has been recorded); though the Nixon tapes are not mentioned, the point is obvious. Operatic comparisons are also in order. The Hero is a reverse twist on Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, that maudlin, heavy-handed tale about the impersonation of a dead man in bed. Most of Menotti's music is passable Puccini: melodic, easy to take - and totally beside the point...
Died. Giovacchino Forzano, 86, Italian playwright and librettist noted for his work with Puccini; in Rome. Forzano won plaudits for his librettos for Puccini's one-act Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, and contributed librettos for such other composers as Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Lehar. Italians also remember him as the dramatist who nursed Mussolini's passion to write, thrice co-authoring plays with H Duce...
...From this generous supply every player must, of course, select his own repertory of names. A good random beginner's list might include Hector Berlioz ("EC-tor BEAR-li-oss"), Emil Waldteufel ("VAAL-toy-ful"), Kurt Weill's Die Dreigrosch-enoper ("Dee Dry-GROSH-en-oper"), Puccini's Gianni Schicchi ("Johnny SKEE-ky"), Prokofiev's ballet, Chout ("Shoo!"), Conductor Eugen Jochum ("OY-gen YOK-hum"), Pianist Jorge Bo-let ("HOAR-hay Bo-LETT"). Advanced players will discover certain unaccountable omissions: where are Monteverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda or Composers Karl Heinz Stockhausen and Max Wilhelm Karl Vogrich...