PUCCINI’S TRITTICO IN TCBO

Author:

by Opera Charm
July 1, 2024

The new premiere production sees the three operas Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi being performed on the same evening

Starring Franco Vassallo, Roberto Aronica, Chiara Isotton, Chiara Mogini and Roberto de Candia

From 5 to 12 July at the Comunale Nouveau

BIOGRAPHY

Read more

Read less

INTERVIEW

It metaphorically refers to Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia in the new world premiere production of Giacomo Puccini’s Trittico in the vision of director Pier Francesco Maestrini and in the interpretation of conductor Roberto Abbado, the third homage in the season of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna to the Tuscan composer on the centenary of his death after Manon Lescaut and Tosca. The three one-act operas that make up the celebrated masterpiece – Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi – originally planned by the Bologna opera-symphonic foundation in separate performances, will instead be brought together in four evenings that will see them jointly staged from 5 to 12 July at the Comunale Nouveau. The performance is co-produced with the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.

The director’s idea of juxtaposing Puccini’s three one-act plays with the three canticles of the Divina Commedia – Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso – stems from one of the composer’s very first projects for his Trittico, later shelved while maintaining a direct Dantean reference only in Gianni Schicchi. There remains, however, according to Maestrini, “this idea with the damned souls in Tabarro, with the souls awaiting redemption in Suor Angelica, with the stroke of genius of the ‘heavenly’ Schicchi. It is certainly no coincidence,’ explains the director, ‘that a good part of the third title that makes up the trilogy is written in endecasyllables, or when Suor Angelica appears and sings ‘I desideri sono i fior dei vivi, non fioriscon nel regno delle morte…’ (Desires are the flowers of the living, they do not bloom in the realm of death…) it refers to the prayer of St Benedict in Paradise.

Among the visual references in the staging – with sets designed by Nicolás Boni, costumes by Stefania Scaraggi and lighting by Daniele Naldi – stands out the illustrations by Gustave Doré for the Divina Commedia “which, moreover,” continues Maestrini, “have influenced so much cinema, including Beyond Dreams, which I would say is my main reference for this Triptych”.

Roberto Abbado, winner of the “Abbiati Prize” in 2008 and Principal Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, returns to the Bologna podium. He will also be involved in the Symphonic Season underway on 9 December at the Manzoni.

The sombre story of Tabarro on the barges of the Seine – on a libretto by Giuseppe Adami based on Didier Gold’s La Houppelande – sees baritones Franco Vassallo and Dario Solari alternating in the roles of Michele, tenors Roberto Aronica and Mikheil Sheshaberidze in those of Luigi and sopranos Chiara Isotton and Amarilli Nizza in the guise of Giorgetta. The cast is completed by Cristina Melis (Frugola), Xin Zhang (Tinca), Luciano Leoni (Talpa), Marco Puggioni (Venditore di canzonette), Tatiana Previati and Cristobal Campos as the two lovers.

Chiara Isotton and Amarilli Nizza alternate as the title roles in Suor Angelica, a touching and merciless opera with a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano set in a monastery at the end of the 17th century. The Aunt Princess is the soprano Chiara Mogini, Manuela Custer is the Abbess, Federica Giansanti the Novice Mistress, while Vittoriana De Amicis, Elena Borin and Laura Cherici are respectively Suor Genovieffa, the Zelatrice Nun and the Nurse Nun.

Closing in mockery is the Trittico with Gianni Schicchi, a Dante-inspired “bizzarria” again on a libretto by Forzano that – despite its comic character – revolves around two frauds and a mourning in medieval Florence. It stars baritone Roberto de Candia in the title role, tenors Giorgio Misseri and Giuseppe Castoro alternating as Rinuccio, and soprano Darija Auguštan as Lauretta. Completing the cast are Manuela Custer as Zita, Vittoriana De Amicis as Nella, and Laura Cherici as La Ciesca. The male characters include the voices of Luciano Leoni as Betto di Signa, Mattia Denti as Simone and Michele Patti as Marco.

The Orchestra, the Chorus prepared by Gea Garatti Ansini, and the Chorus of White Voices instructed by Alhambra Superchi are those of the TCBO.

The performances will be preceded – about 45 minutes before they begin – by a short presentation of the opera in the Foyer of the Comunale Nouveau.

Tickets – ranging from €20 to €120 – are on sale online via Vivaticket and at the Teatro Comunale ticket office, open Tuesday to Friday from 12 noon to 6 p.m., on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Largo Respighi, 1); on performance days at the Comunale Nouveau (Piazza della Costituzione, 4/a) from one hour before and until 15 minutes after the start.

RELATED POSTS

Julie Fuchs & Lawrence Brownlee Lead Paris Opera’s ‘La Fille du Régiment’ Stream
November 2024
Opera Charm Team
Accademia di Santa Cecilia Names New President & Superintendent
November 2024
Opera Charm Team

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur