Gianni Schicchi
Encyclopedia
Gianni Schicchi (ˈdʒanːi ˈskikːi, ) is a comic opera
in one act by Giacomo Puccini
to an Italian libretto
by Giovacchino Forzano
, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's
Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico
(The Triptych)—three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together. Although it continues to be performed with one or both of the other trittico operas, Gianni Schicchi is now more frequently staged either alone or with short operas by other composers.
Puccini had long considered a set of one-act operas, to be performed in a single evening. Faced with a lack of suitable subjects and opposition from his publisher, he repeatedly put the project aside. However, by 1916 Puccini had completed the one-act tragedy Il tabarro
and, after considering various ideas, he began work the following year on the solemn, religious, all-female opera Suor Angelica
. Gianni Schicchi, a comedy, completes the triptych with a further contrast of mood. The score combines elements of Puccini's modern style of harmonic dissonance with lyrical passages reminiscent of Rossini, and it has been praised for its inventiveness and imagination.
When Il trittico premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera
in December 1918, Gianni Schicchi became an immediate hit, whereas the other two operas were received with less enthusiasm. This pattern was broadly repeated at the Rome and London premieres and led to commercial pressures to abandon the less successful elements. Although on artistic grounds Puccini opposed performing the three operas except as the original triptych, by 1920 he had given his reluctant consent to separate performances. Gianni Schicchi has subsequently become the most-performed part of Il trittico and has been widely recorded.
The plot used in the opera derives from an 1866 edition of The Divine Comedy by philologist Pietro Fanfani, which contained an appendix with a commentary on Dante's work attributed to an anonymous Florentine of the 14th century. In this version, Buoso wishes to make a will
, but is put off by his son, Simone. Once it is too late, Simone fears that Buoso, before his illness, may have made a will unfavourable to him. Simone calls on Schicchi for advice, and Schicchi has the idea of impersonating Buoso and making a new will. Simone promises Schicchi he will be well rewarded, but Schicchi takes no chances, "leaving" a considerable sum and Buoso's mule to himself (though most goes to Simone), and makes the bequests conditional on Simone's distributing the estate within fifteen days, otherwise everything will go to charity.
Both Schicchi and Buoso Donati were historical characters. Dante's verses, and the opera, are based on an actual incident that took place in 13th century Florence. Dante had several reasons for his harsh treatment of Schicchi: Dante's wife, Gemma, was of the Donati family; the poet himself was of pure Florentine descent. He despised members of the peasant class such as Schicchi. Dante's class prejudice displays itself in several episodes in the Inferno; in one, three noble Florentines, who have died and gone to Hell, ask Dante for news of their home city. A disgusted Dante tells them that the city is now dominated by the nouveau riche
.
According to Burton Fisher, Puccini and Forzano borrowed heavily from the commedia dell'arte
tradition in Gianni Schicchi. Schicchi himself recalls the roguish Harlequin
, while his daughter Lauretta, whose romance is nearly foiled by Buoso's relatives, resembles Columbina
. Simone is drawn from Pantaloon, while the poverty-stricken Betto recalls the buffoonish valet Zany
. Doctor Spinelloccio recalls the classic doctor from the commedia dell'arte, Balanzone even to his Bolognese origin. The Moor whose death momentarily scares the relatives, and his captain
are stock characters from commedia dell'arte.
As Buoso Donati lies dead in his curtained four-poster bed, his relatives gather round to mourn his passing but more particularly to learn the contents of his will. Among those present are his cousins Zita and Simone, his poor-relation brother-in-law Betto, and Zita's nephew Rinuccio. Betto mentions a rumour he has heard, that Buoso has left everything to a monastery; this disturbs the others, and precipitates a frantic search for the will. The document is found by Rinuccio, who is confident that his uncle will have left him plenty of money. He withholds the will momentarily, and asks Zita to allow him to marry Lauretta, daughter of Gianni Schicchi, a newcomer to Florence. Zita states that if Buoso has left them rich, he can marry whom he pleases; she and the other relatives are anxious to begin reading the will. A happy Rinuccio sends little Gherardino to fetch Schicchi and Lauretta.
As they read, the relatives' worst fears are soon realised; Buoso has indeed bequeathed his fortune to the monastery. There is an outbreak of woe and indignation. They turn to Simone—the oldest present and a former mayor of Fucecchio—but he can offer no help. Rinuccio suggests that only Gianni Schicchi can advise them what to do, but this is scorned by Zita and the rest, who sneer at Schicchi's humble origins and now say that marriage to the daughter of such a peasant is out of the question. Rinuccio defends Schicchi in an aria "Avete torto" (You're mistaken), after which Schicchi and Lauretta arrive. Schicchi quickly grasps the situation, and Rinuccio begs him for help, but Schicchi is rudely told by Zita to "be off" and take his daughter with him. Rinuccio and Lauretta listen in despair as Schicchi announces that he will have nothing to do with such people. Lauretta makes a final plea to him with "O mio babbino caro
" (Oh, my dear papa), and he agrees to look at the will. After first saying that nothing can be done, he has an idea—and sends his daughter outside so that she will be innocent of what is to follow.
First, Schicchi establishes that no one other than those present knows that Buoso has died. He then orders the body removed to another room. A knock announces the arrival of Doctor Spinelloccio; Schicchi goes behind the curtains, imitates Buoso's voice and announces that he is feeling better, and will the doctor return that evening? Praising his own skills, Spinelloccio departs. Schicchi then unveils his plan in an aria "Si corre dal notaio" (Run to the notary); having established in the doctor's mind that Buoso is still alive, Schicchi will disguise himself as Buoso and will dictate a new will. All are delighted with the scheme, and begin making their requests for Buoso's various possessions, the most treasured of which are "the mule, the house and the mills at Signa". A funeral bell rings, and everyone fears that the news of Buoso's death has emerged. However, it turns out that the bell is tolling for the death of the neighbouring Captain's Moor
ish servant. The relatives agree to leave the disposition of the mule, the house and the mills to Schicchi, though each in turn offers him a bribe. The women help him to change into Buoso's clothes, as they sing the lyrical trio "Spogliati, bambolino" (Undress, little boy). Before taking his place in the bed, Schicchi warns the company of the grave punishment for those found to have falsified a will—banishment, and the loss of a hand.
The notary arrives and Schicchi begins dictating. To general satisfaction he allocates the minor bequests, but when it comes to the mule, the house and the mills, he orders that these be left to "my devoted friend Gianni Schicchi". Incredulous, the family can do nothing while the lawyer is present—and are slyly reminded by Schicchi of the penalties that discovery of the ruse will bring. Their outburst of rage when the notary leaves is countered by a love duet from Lauretta and Rinuccio, "Lauretta mia"; there is now no bar to their marriage, since Schicchi can provide a full dowry. Schicchi chases the relatives out of what is now his house, and when he returns, stands moved at the sight of the two lovers. He turns to the audience and asks them to concur that no better use could be found for Buoso's wealth. Though Dante condemned him to Hell for this trick, Schicchi asks that the audience find extenuating circumstances.
for the best such work, which had produced Pietro Mascagni
's Cavalleria rusticana
. With Tosca
essentially completed by November 1899, Puccini sought a new project. Among the works he considered were three works by Alphonse Daudet
that Puccini thought might be made into a trilogy of one-act operas.
After Madama Butterfly
, which premiered in 1904, Puccini had difficulty finding a new subject. He further considered the idea of composing three one-act operas to be performed together. He found his publisher, Giulio Ricordi
, firmly opposed to such a project, convinced that it would be expensive to cast and produce. The composer planned to work with his longtime librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa
, on an opera about Marie Antoinette
; this project was frustrated by the librettist's illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, "Will we go back to it?[ Maria Antonietta] If I find three one-act works that suit me, I'll put off M.A. [ Maria Antonietta] " With the librettist's continued illness, Puccini pursued neither project. Giacosa died in September 1906.
In March 1907, Puccini wrote to Carlo Clausetti, Ricordi's representative in Naples, proposing three one-act operas based on scenes from stories by Maxim Gorky
. By May the composer had set aside the proposal, as he began to gain enthusiasm for the project which became La fanciulla del West
. However, he never entirely gave up the idea of a multiple-opera evening. He conceived the idea of a two-opera bill, with one tragic and one comic, but then expanded it to a third, to have a mystic or religious tone. The tragic piece, which became Il tabarro
, was completed in November 1916, but Puccini still lacked ideas for the other two works. He considered playing Il tabarro in combination with his own early work, Le Villi
, or with other two-act operas which might be used to complete the evening. Finally, librettist Giovacchino Forzano
presented Puccini with two works of his own, which became Suor Angelica
and Gianni Schicchi. Although Puccini's earlier operas, for example La bohème
, contain comic episodes, they are merely ancillary to the drama, providing contrast. Puccini had never before written a purely comic opera.
Forzano wrote to Tito Ricordi, Giulio's son, on 3 March 1917:
In fact, Puccini was at first less than enthusiastic about the idea for the comic opera—Florence as a setting did not appeal to him, and he feared the public would have little interest in the subject. However, he soon became interested, and he did some work on the piece even while composing Suor Angelica. The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to Gianni Schicchi, though the war
news and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which Puccini lost a sister, distracted him from his work. The first draft was completed on 20 April 1918; Puccini continued to polish it through the summer of 1918.
With Il trittico completed, Puccini had to decide on a place for the premiere. In 1918, travel was risky and uncertain. Puccini received an offer from Buenos Aires
; he refused it as he was unwilling to have so complex a work premiere overseas in his absence. Nevertheless, he agreed that the premiere could take place at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York without his being there. He did, however, send instructions on how to play the work to the conductor. Gianni Schicchi proved to be the last opera that Puccini completed.
Gianni Schicchi was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera
on 14 December 1918, with Roberto Moranzoni conducting, as the final part of Il trittico
. While the sold-out house showed polite enthusiasm for Il tabarro and Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi was, in the words of the New York Tribune
's critic, "received with uproarious delight". In the Evening Sun
, W.J. Henderson called it "one of the most delightful bits ever put upon the Met stage". The undoubted "pearl of the evening", he said, was Lauretta's aria which, despite a public notice forbidding encores, was repeated through popular insistence. The only singer to appear in all three works was American soprano Marie Tiffany
, who played one of the lovers in Il tabarro, a lay sister in Suor Angelica, and Nella in Gianni Schicchi. Il trittico was performed at the Met's Philadelphia opera house
on 17 December with the same cast, before returning to New York for five more performances during the 1918–19 season.
At the time of the New York premiere, Il trittico was in rehearsal in Rome, in preparation for an Italian premiere at the Teatro Costanzi. Puccini wrote Tito Ricordi that the rehearsals were going slowly, but that the orchestra sounded fine, at least in Gianni Schicchi. The Italian premiere, more important to Puccini than the New York world premiere, took place on 11 January 1919. Gianni Schicchi was again warmly received, more so than the other two operas of Il trittico. Among those dissatisfied by the triptych was Puccini's friend, the conductor Arturo Toscanini
, who was in the audience for the Rome premiere. Toscanini was disgusted by the verismo
of Il tabarro, and left the performance after the first curtain. This caused a rift in his relationship with Puccini, who stated that he would not allow "this god" to conduct the London premiere, though the two were later reconciled. At the Rome premiere, the part of Rinuccio was sung by the Canadian tenor Edward Johnson
, a future general manager of the Met. Johnson later recalled that, at the composer's request, he had dragged a mock-reluctant Puccini from the wings to acknowledge the house's applause.
In 1919, Puccini visited London to discuss plans for the following year's Covent Garden premiere of Il trittico. This took place on 18 June 1920; King George V
and Queen Mary
were present, and called Puccini to their box to give him their congratulations. With Toscanini not considered, Puccini hoped that Sir Thomas Beecham
would conduct the premiere, but he declined and Gaetano Bavagnoli
conducted. Once again, only Gianni Schicchi was received with real warmth.
Other early performances included the October 1920 production of Il trittico in German, at the Vienna State Opera
. In the years following the premiere, Puccini made modifications to the three operas, but Gianni Schicchi required few. The principal change was to Rinuccio's arioso, "Avete torto", which was set in a higher pitch, to emphasise the tenor's voice.
By 1920 Puccini was facing increasing pressure, not only from impresarios but also from his publishing firm, Casa Ricordi
, to allow Il trittico to be broken up and presented separately. Initially, opera houses wanted to omit Suor Angelica, which had proved the least popular of the three, but some wished to omit Il tabarro as well. Puccini had left London confident that Il trittico would gain a place in the Covent Garden repertoire, but soon learned that the opera house's director, Henry V. Higgins, had removed Suor Angelica, feeling that the audience disliked it—Higgins would never stage it again. Puccini vociferously objected, as did his longtime London friend, Sybil Seligman, to no avail. Higgins then decided to remove Il tabarro as well, and stage Gianni Schicchi with a performance of the Russian ballet. Puccini stated, "This is a real betrayal", but in the end gave in and permitted the performance. However, Puccini was convinced that the three works should be performed together, and that his original conception was being "brutally torn to pieces". The Metropolitan Opera joined in the dismemberment—after 1920, it would not again present the three operas together until 1975.
's Pagliacci
. The 1926 production, by Wilhelm von Wymetal, featured sets by Joseph Novak. In the following years at the Met, Gianni Schicchi would form part of a bill with such diverse works as Engelbert Humperdinck
's Hänsel und Gretel
, Italo Montemezzi
's L'amore dei tre re
, and even be incestuously mated with Puccini's own La bohème
. In 1952, Novak's sets were revised by Wilhelm von Wymetal in a production which remained in service until 1958.
Among the leading singers associated with the opera, Tito Gobbi
was particularly prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. He first sang the role of Schicchi in the Rome production in 1951; in subsequent years he appeared in further Rome seasons, in Bologna, and at La Scala
, Milan, where Renata Scotto
sang Lauretta in Carlo Maestrini's production. Gobbi directed and sang in the 1969 production at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, and later that year performed in and directed the same version at the August 1969 Edinburgh Festival
.
In 1974, the Met gave Gianni Schicchi its first new production since 1926. The production, by Fabrizio Melano, was paired with the Met debut of Bluebeard's Castle
. The following year, the Met revived Il trittico in the original form, combining the Melano production with new productions for the other two operas by the same director. The 1975 Schicchi featured Renata Scotto
as Lauretta. Scotto also played the two other Il trittico heroines, a feat she repeated later that season, on tour, and when the three operas were again presented by the Met in 1981. When the production was revived again by the Met in 1989, Teresa Stratas
sang the "trittico hat-trick
". Lili Chookasian
sang the mezzo-soprano
leads in all three operas (Zita in Gianni Schicchi) and Cornell MacNeil
played Schicchi.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
put on a 2004 double bill of Gianni Schicchi and Rachmaninoff
's The Miserly Knight
, in which the sets for the two operas (designed by Vicki Mortimer) are back-to-back on a turntable. In 2007, it was announced that Los Angeles Opera
would be putting on Il trittico in the 2008–2009 season, with Woody Allen
to make his operatic directing debut with Gianni Schicchi. The production starred baritone Sir Thomas Allen, soprano Laura Tătulescu, and tenor Saimir Pirgu
. The 2007 Royal Opera House production by Richard Jones
updated the action to a shabby 1940s Italy of "unemptied chamber pots, garish floral wallpaper and damp ceilings", with Bryn Terfel
in the title role "a masterpiece of monstrous vulgarity". In the 2009 revival of this production, Schicchi was sung by Thomas Allen, while Gwynne Howell
, as Simone, celebrated 40 years with the Royal Opera.
critic Henry Krehbiel described it as "so uproariously funny ... so full of life, humor, and ingenious devices". The New York Times
reviewer James Gibbons Huneker considered the opera to be "a rollicking, madcap scherzo, overflowing with merry deviltries ... And the last shall be first." Huneker praised De Luca as "a most engaging rascal, fit for a minor niche in Moliere's gallery". The Times critic also was amused by Marto Malatesta as "The 'Kid' Gherardino, who is spanked by the irate family".
Rome's critics gave Il trittico generally a warmer reception, but still saw Gianni Schicchi as the best of the three. Alberto Gasco in La tribuna noted, "In terms of harmonic technique, Il tabarro and Schicchi advance quite startling elements of novelty. Nothing that contemporary art has produced escapes the studious and astute Giacomo Puccini." Gasco also stated that while many critics were waiting for the first two operas with their fists drawn, Gianni Schicchi disarmed these "hired assassins" with a "single glance". An anonymous reviewer in L'idea nazionale felt that the three works comprised a unified whole, but feared that Puccini was becoming less inventive. L'idea nazionale was a nationalist newspaper, and praised Puccini for returning to an Italian subject "after so many useless Japanese, American, Parisian digressions".
Modern productions, including those in an updated context, have been generally well received. Describing the 2004 Glyndebourne pairing with The Miserly Knight as "flip sides of the same coin", reviewer Edward Seckerson in The Independent
found the Schicchi performance "a triumph of ensemble directing and playing, ... wickedly observed, sharp, focussed and funny". The New York Times gave a positive review to the Woody Allen 2008 production, which is set in a crowded tenement in which the boy Gherardino is practising knife thrusts. However, the critic questioned Allen's altered ending, in which Schicchi is stabbed by Zita as he addresses the audience. Los Angeles Times
critic Mark Swed deemed Allen's production one of the top ten moments in classical music for 2008, and applauded it for "hilarious wit and engaging musicality". Allen Rich of Variety
praised the piece, though he disliked Allen's idea of beginning the opera with a montage of old film clips, with credits featuring mock-Italian names.
said of Puccini, early in the latter's career, that "the symphonic element dominates in him", and within the triptych Gianni Schicchi has been compared by later analysts to that of the final presto movement of a three-movement symphony. With the fast-moving pace of the work, the set pieces are given a simpler melodic structure than those in the other two parts of the triptych. On stage, with the commedia dell'arte references, a humorous atmosphere is established from the very beginning. However, the music itself is of the 20th century; Edward Greenfield
refers to its "dissonant modernity", with simultaneous clashing chords suggesting that "Puccini was beginning to think in bi-tonal terms". Alongside these dissonant passages are others which opera scholar Julian Budden
calls "bland, schoolroom diatonism
".
Puccini's score is built around a series of motifs which recur through the opera, generally representing characters, situations and moods though sometimes without specific associations. The opening motif is a rapid burst of rhythmic music, described by Greenfield as of "almost Stravinskian sharpness", which quickly transforms into a mock-solemn dirge depicting the hypocritical grief of the Donati relatives. This juxtaposition of the humorous and the solemn pervades the opera; critic Ernest Newman
suggests that it "keeps us perpetually suspended between the comic and the tragic". Other principal motifs include the theme associated with the lovers Rinuccio and Lauretta, introduced in Rinuccio's first solo "Salvati! Salvati!", and a short, formal woodwind statement which represents Donati's will. Rinuccio sings the name "Gianni Schicchi" to a jaunty four-note phrase which becomes Schicchi's personal motif, and it is heard again as Schicchi knocks on the door before his first appearance. The best-known theme in the opera, that associated with Lauretta, is introduced in the second part of Rinuccio's aria "Avete torto". The theme is briefly played on clarinet and violin as Lauretta enters with Schicchi, before its full expression in O mio babbino caro.
Budden dismisses the view that Lauretta's aria, at the mid-point of the opera, was a concession to popular taste; rather, "its position at the turning point of the action is precisely calculated to provide a welcome moment of lyrical repose". Andrew Davis, in his book on Puccini's late style, notes that Lauretta's aria, and the two interruptions by the young lovers ("Addio, speranza bella") as Schicchi mulls over the will, constitute interruptions in the Romantic style, delivered during a lengthy sequence of non-Romantic music. Another interruption, both dramatically and musically, is that provided by the appearance of Doctor Spinelloccio. The doctor's dissonant harmonies contrast sharply with the scena music for Schicchi and symbolise Spinelloccio's place as an outsider to the dramatic action of the opera.
Historian Donald Jay Grout has written that in this opera Puccini's comic skill is "seen at its most spontaneous, incorporating smoothly all the characteristic harmonic devices of his later period." Greenfield remarks on the score's inventiveness, imagination and flawless timing. Several critics have likened Gianni Schicchi to Verdi's Falstaff
, similarly a masterpiece of operatic comedy from a composer more usually associated with tragedy. Both composers took the conventions of comic opera into consideration, choosing a baritone for the principal role, setting the tenor-soprano love story against family opposition to the marriage, and constructing a hoax which permits the happy ending. Charles Osborne
cites in particular the trio for three female voices, Spogliati, bambolino, as equal to anything in Falstaff, "its exquisite harmonies almost turning the unprepossessing women into Wagnerian Rhine maidens", and its lilting melody reminiscent of Rossini.
, with a cast including Tito Gobbi
and Victoria de los Ángeles
, was still being discussed nearly 50 years later as the classic performance, with Gobbi's singing at a standard rarely equalled. Among more recent recordings, that of the complete Trittico with the London Symphony Orchestra
under Antonio Pappano
(1998) has been generally recommended. There are numerous video recordings now available.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in one act by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
to an Italian libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Giovacchino Forzano
Giovacchino Forzano
Giovacchino Forzano was an Italian playwright, librettist, stage director, and film director. A resourceful writer, he produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica and Gianni...
, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico
Il trittico
Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini...
(The Triptych)—three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together. Although it continues to be performed with one or both of the other trittico operas, Gianni Schicchi is now more frequently staged either alone or with short operas by other composers.
Puccini had long considered a set of one-act operas, to be performed in a single evening. Faced with a lack of suitable subjects and opposition from his publisher, he repeatedly put the project aside. However, by 1916 Puccini had completed the one-act tragedy Il tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
and, after considering various ideas, he began work the following year on the solemn, religious, all-female opera Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
. Gianni Schicchi, a comedy, completes the triptych with a further contrast of mood. The score combines elements of Puccini's modern style of harmonic dissonance with lyrical passages reminiscent of Rossini, and it has been praised for its inventiveness and imagination.
When Il trittico premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in December 1918, Gianni Schicchi became an immediate hit, whereas the other two operas were received with less enthusiasm. This pattern was broadly repeated at the Rome and London premieres and led to commercial pressures to abandon the less successful elements. Although on artistic grounds Puccini opposed performing the three operas except as the original triptych, by 1920 he had given his reluctant consent to separate performances. Gianni Schicchi has subsequently become the most-performed part of Il trittico and has been widely recorded.
Historical background
A man named Gianni Schicchi is only briefly referred to in Dante's Inferno Canto XXX. In that canto, Dante visits the Circle of Impersonators, and sees a man savagely attacking another. Dante is told that the attacker is Schicchi, condemned to Hell for making the will of Buoso Donati highly favorable to Schicchi while impersonating him.The plot used in the opera derives from an 1866 edition of The Divine Comedy by philologist Pietro Fanfani, which contained an appendix with a commentary on Dante's work attributed to an anonymous Florentine of the 14th century. In this version, Buoso wishes to make a will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
, but is put off by his son, Simone. Once it is too late, Simone fears that Buoso, before his illness, may have made a will unfavourable to him. Simone calls on Schicchi for advice, and Schicchi has the idea of impersonating Buoso and making a new will. Simone promises Schicchi he will be well rewarded, but Schicchi takes no chances, "leaving" a considerable sum and Buoso's mule to himself (though most goes to Simone), and makes the bequests conditional on Simone's distributing the estate within fifteen days, otherwise everything will go to charity.
Both Schicchi and Buoso Donati were historical characters. Dante's verses, and the opera, are based on an actual incident that took place in 13th century Florence. Dante had several reasons for his harsh treatment of Schicchi: Dante's wife, Gemma, was of the Donati family; the poet himself was of pure Florentine descent. He despised members of the peasant class such as Schicchi. Dante's class prejudice displays itself in several episodes in the Inferno; in one, three noble Florentines, who have died and gone to Hell, ask Dante for news of their home city. A disgusted Dante tells them that the city is now dominated by the nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
.
According to Burton Fisher, Puccini and Forzano borrowed heavily from the commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
tradition in Gianni Schicchi. Schicchi himself recalls the roguish Harlequin
Harlequin
Harlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.-Origins:...
, while his daughter Lauretta, whose romance is nearly foiled by Buoso's relatives, resembles Columbina
Columbina
Columbine is a fictional character in the Commedia dell'Arte. She is Harlequin's mistress, a comic servant playing the tricky slave type, and wife of Pierrot...
. Simone is drawn from Pantaloon, while the poverty-stricken Betto recalls the buffoonish valet Zany
Zanni
Zanni or Zani is a character type of Commedia dell'arte best known as an astute servant and trickster. The Zanni comes from the countryside. The Zanni is known to be a “dispossessed immigrant worker”. "Immigrant" in Italy at the time of the city-states, did not necessarily mean someone from...
. Doctor Spinelloccio recalls the classic doctor from the commedia dell'arte, Balanzone even to his Bolognese origin. The Moor whose death momentarily scares the relatives, and his captain
Il Capitano
Il Capitano is a masked character from the commedia dell'arte. He is often an outside who can maintain his claims only by benefit of the fact that none of the locals know him. He is usually a Spaniard given the fact that for most of the late Renaissance to well into 17th century, Italy was under...
are stock characters from commedia dell'arte.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 14 December 1918 (Conductor: Roberto Moranzoni) |
|---|---|---|
| Gianni Schicchi (age 50) | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Giuseppe De Luca Giuseppe de Luca Giuseppe De Luca , was a famous Italian baritone who achieved his greatest triumphs at the New York Metropolitan Opera... |
| Lauretta, his daughter (age 21) | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Florence Easton Florence Easton Florence Easton was a popular English dramatic soprano in the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time. She sang more than 100 parts, covering a wide range of styles and periods, from Mozart, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Strauss, Schreker and Krenek... |
| Zita, cousin of Buoso Donati (age 60) | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
Kathleen Howard Kathleen Howard Kathleen Howard was a Canadian-born opera singer , magazine editor and US film character actress from the mid-1930s through the 1940s. She spent her childhood in Buffalo, NY and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery there.She created the role of Zita in Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the... |
| Rinuccio, Zita's nephew (age 24) | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Giulio Crimi Giulio Crimi Giulio Crimi was an Italian operatic tenor.Crimi was born in Paternò, Italy. He studied in Catania with Adernò and made his debut in Palermo, as Manrico in Il trovatore, in 1910, later appearing in Treviso as Hagenbach in La Wally... |
| Gherardo, Buoso's nephew (age 40) | tenor | Angelo Badà Angelo Badà Angelo Badà was an Italian operatic tenor. He had a lengthy association with the Metropolitan Opera of New York City where he gave a total of 2,170 performance in 94 different operas in over 100 different roles from 1908 through 1938. Only two singers in the Met's history have made more... |
| Nella, Gherardo's wife (age 34) | soprano | Marie Tiffany Marie Tiffany Marie Tiffany was an American operatic soprano. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1916-1928; making a total of 208 appearances at the Met during her career... |
| Gherardino, their son (age 7) | soprano or treble Boy soprano A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily... |
Mario Malatesta |
| Betto di Signa, Buoso's brother-in-law, poor and shabbily dressed, of uncertain age | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Paolo Ananian |
| Simone, cousin of Buoso (age 70) | bass | Adamo Didur Adamo Didur Adamo Didur was a top-class Polish operatic bass vocalist. He sang extensively in opera in Europe and appeared at New York's Metropolitan Opera from 1908 to 1932.-Career:... |
| Marco, Simone's son (age 45) | baritone | Louis D'Angelo |
| La Ciesca, Marco's wife (age 38) | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Marie Sundelius Marie Sundelius Marie Sundelius was a Swedish-American classical soprano. She sang for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and later embarked on a second career as a celebrated voice teacher in Boston.... |
| Maestro Spinelloccio, a doctor | bass | Pompilio Malatesta |
| Ser Amantio di Nicolao, a notary | baritone | Andrés de Segurola Andrés de Segurola Andrés Perelló de Segurola was a Spanish operatic bass who performed as Andrés de Segurola.-Biography:... |
| Pinellino, a cobbler | bass | Vincenzo Reschiglian Vincenzo Reschiglian Vincenzo Reschiglian was an Italian operatic baritone who specialized in the comprimario repertoire.-Biography:Born in Venice, he was the older brother of tenor Giuseppe Reschiglian... |
| Guccio, a dyer | bass | Carl Schlegel |
Synopsis
- Place: Florence
- Time: 1299.
As Buoso Donati lies dead in his curtained four-poster bed, his relatives gather round to mourn his passing but more particularly to learn the contents of his will. Among those present are his cousins Zita and Simone, his poor-relation brother-in-law Betto, and Zita's nephew Rinuccio. Betto mentions a rumour he has heard, that Buoso has left everything to a monastery; this disturbs the others, and precipitates a frantic search for the will. The document is found by Rinuccio, who is confident that his uncle will have left him plenty of money. He withholds the will momentarily, and asks Zita to allow him to marry Lauretta, daughter of Gianni Schicchi, a newcomer to Florence. Zita states that if Buoso has left them rich, he can marry whom he pleases; she and the other relatives are anxious to begin reading the will. A happy Rinuccio sends little Gherardino to fetch Schicchi and Lauretta.
As they read, the relatives' worst fears are soon realised; Buoso has indeed bequeathed his fortune to the monastery. There is an outbreak of woe and indignation. They turn to Simone—the oldest present and a former mayor of Fucecchio—but he can offer no help. Rinuccio suggests that only Gianni Schicchi can advise them what to do, but this is scorned by Zita and the rest, who sneer at Schicchi's humble origins and now say that marriage to the daughter of such a peasant is out of the question. Rinuccio defends Schicchi in an aria "Avete torto" (You're mistaken), after which Schicchi and Lauretta arrive. Schicchi quickly grasps the situation, and Rinuccio begs him for help, but Schicchi is rudely told by Zita to "be off" and take his daughter with him. Rinuccio and Lauretta listen in despair as Schicchi announces that he will have nothing to do with such people. Lauretta makes a final plea to him with "O mio babbino caro
O mio babbino caro
"O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi , by Giacomo Puccini, to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between her father Schicchi and the family of Rinuccio, the boy she loves, have reached a breaking point that threatens to...
" (Oh, my dear papa), and he agrees to look at the will. After first saying that nothing can be done, he has an idea—and sends his daughter outside so that she will be innocent of what is to follow.
First, Schicchi establishes that no one other than those present knows that Buoso has died. He then orders the body removed to another room. A knock announces the arrival of Doctor Spinelloccio; Schicchi goes behind the curtains, imitates Buoso's voice and announces that he is feeling better, and will the doctor return that evening? Praising his own skills, Spinelloccio departs. Schicchi then unveils his plan in an aria "Si corre dal notaio" (Run to the notary); having established in the doctor's mind that Buoso is still alive, Schicchi will disguise himself as Buoso and will dictate a new will. All are delighted with the scheme, and begin making their requests for Buoso's various possessions, the most treasured of which are "the mule, the house and the mills at Signa". A funeral bell rings, and everyone fears that the news of Buoso's death has emerged. However, it turns out that the bell is tolling for the death of the neighbouring Captain's Moor
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
ish servant. The relatives agree to leave the disposition of the mule, the house and the mills to Schicchi, though each in turn offers him a bribe. The women help him to change into Buoso's clothes, as they sing the lyrical trio "Spogliati, bambolino" (Undress, little boy). Before taking his place in the bed, Schicchi warns the company of the grave punishment for those found to have falsified a will—banishment, and the loss of a hand.
The notary arrives and Schicchi begins dictating. To general satisfaction he allocates the minor bequests, but when it comes to the mule, the house and the mills, he orders that these be left to "my devoted friend Gianni Schicchi". Incredulous, the family can do nothing while the lawyer is present—and are slyly reminded by Schicchi of the penalties that discovery of the ruse will bring. Their outburst of rage when the notary leaves is countered by a love duet from Lauretta and Rinuccio, "Lauretta mia"; there is now no bar to their marriage, since Schicchi can provide a full dowry. Schicchi chases the relatives out of what is now his house, and when he returns, stands moved at the sight of the two lovers. He turns to the audience and asks them to concur that no better use could be found for Buoso's wealth. Though Dante condemned him to Hell for this trick, Schicchi asks that the audience find extenuating circumstances.
Composition history
The one-act opera had become increasingly popular in Italy, following the 1890 competition sponsored by publisher Edoardo SonzognoEdoardo Sonzogno
Edoardo Sonzogno was an Italian publisher.A native of Milan, Sonzogno was the son of a businessman who owned a printing plant and bookstore; when he inherited the business upon his father's death he set about turning it into a publishing house, Casa Sonzogno, which opened in 1874...
for the best such work, which had produced Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
. With Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
essentially completed by November 1899, Puccini sought a new project. Among the works he considered were three works by Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
that Puccini thought might be made into a trilogy of one-act operas.
After Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, which premiered in 1904, Puccini had difficulty finding a new subject. He further considered the idea of composing three one-act operas to be performed together. He found his publisher, Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi was an Italian editor and musician.-Biography:Ricordi was born in Milan, where he also died....
, firmly opposed to such a project, convinced that it would be expensive to cast and produce. The composer planned to work with his longtime librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa
Giuseppe Giacosa
Giuseppe Giacosa was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist.He was born in Colleretto Parella, now Colleretto Giacosa, near Turin. His father was a magistrate. Giuseppe went to the University of Turin, studying in the University of Turin, Faculty of Law...
, on an opera about Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
; this project was frustrated by the librettist's illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, "Will we go back to it?
In March 1907, Puccini wrote to Carlo Clausetti, Ricordi's representative in Naples, proposing three one-act operas based on scenes from stories by Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
. By May the composer had set aside the proposal, as he began to gain enthusiasm for the project which became La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
. However, he never entirely gave up the idea of a multiple-opera evening. He conceived the idea of a two-opera bill, with one tragic and one comic, but then expanded it to a third, to have a mystic or religious tone. The tragic piece, which became Il tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
, was completed in November 1916, but Puccini still lacked ideas for the other two works. He considered playing Il tabarro in combination with his own early work, Le Villi
Le Villi
Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. Karr's story was in turn based in the Central European legend of the Willis, also used in the ballet Giselle...
, or with other two-act operas which might be used to complete the evening. Finally, librettist Giovacchino Forzano
Giovacchino Forzano
Giovacchino Forzano was an Italian playwright, librettist, stage director, and film director. A resourceful writer, he produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica and Gianni...
presented Puccini with two works of his own, which became Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
and Gianni Schicchi. Although Puccini's earlier operas, for example La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, contain comic episodes, they are merely ancillary to the drama, providing contrast. Puccini had never before written a purely comic opera.
Forzano wrote to Tito Ricordi, Giulio's son, on 3 March 1917:
I sent the libretto of Suor Angelica to Maestro Puccini some days ago. He has declared himself—kind as he is—very satisfied ... I have also finished a brief outline of a plot based on Gianni Schicchi. You know the Maestro's opinion of this subject, which is rich in possibilities and whose comic nature is quite out of the ordinary.
In fact, Puccini was at first less than enthusiastic about the idea for the comic opera—Florence as a setting did not appeal to him, and he feared the public would have little interest in the subject. However, he soon became interested, and he did some work on the piece even while composing Suor Angelica. The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to Gianni Schicchi, though the war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
news and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which Puccini lost a sister, distracted him from his work. The first draft was completed on 20 April 1918; Puccini continued to polish it through the summer of 1918.
With Il trittico completed, Puccini had to decide on a place for the premiere. In 1918, travel was risky and uncertain. Puccini received an offer from Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
; he refused it as he was unwilling to have so complex a work premiere overseas in his absence. Nevertheless, he agreed that the premiere could take place at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York without his being there. He did, however, send instructions on how to play the work to the conductor. Gianni Schicchi proved to be the last opera that Puccini completed.
Early performances
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
on 14 December 1918, with Roberto Moranzoni conducting, as the final part of Il trittico
Il trittico
Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini...
. While the sold-out house showed polite enthusiasm for Il tabarro and Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi was, in the words of the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
's critic, "received with uproarious delight". In the Evening Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
, W.J. Henderson called it "one of the most delightful bits ever put upon the Met stage". The undoubted "pearl of the evening", he said, was Lauretta's aria which, despite a public notice forbidding encores, was repeated through popular insistence. The only singer to appear in all three works was American soprano Marie Tiffany
Marie Tiffany
Marie Tiffany was an American operatic soprano. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1916-1928; making a total of 208 appearances at the Met during her career...
, who played one of the lovers in Il tabarro, a lay sister in Suor Angelica, and Nella in Gianni Schicchi. Il trittico was performed at the Met's Philadelphia opera house
Metropolitan Opera House (Philadelphia)
The Metropolitan Opera House is a historic opera house located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 858 North Broad Street. Built over the course of just a few months in 1908, it was the ninth opera house built by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. It was initially the home of Hammerstein's Philadelphia...
on 17 December with the same cast, before returning to New York for five more performances during the 1918–19 season.
At the time of the New York premiere, Il trittico was in rehearsal in Rome, in preparation for an Italian premiere at the Teatro Costanzi. Puccini wrote Tito Ricordi that the rehearsals were going slowly, but that the orchestra sounded fine, at least in Gianni Schicchi. The Italian premiere, more important to Puccini than the New York world premiere, took place on 11 January 1919. Gianni Schicchi was again warmly received, more so than the other two operas of Il trittico. Among those dissatisfied by the triptych was Puccini's friend, the conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, who was in the audience for the Rome premiere. Toscanini was disgusted by the verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
of Il tabarro, and left the performance after the first curtain. This caused a rift in his relationship with Puccini, who stated that he would not allow "this god" to conduct the London premiere, though the two were later reconciled. At the Rome premiere, the part of Rinuccio was sung by the Canadian tenor Edward Johnson
Edward Johnson (tenor)
Edward Patrick Johnson CBE was a Canadian operatic tenor who was billed outside North America as Edoardo Di Giovanni, and became director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.- Early life :...
, a future general manager of the Met. Johnson later recalled that, at the composer's request, he had dragged a mock-reluctant Puccini from the wings to acknowledge the house's applause.
In 1919, Puccini visited London to discuss plans for the following year's Covent Garden premiere of Il trittico. This took place on 18 June 1920; King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
were present, and called Puccini to their box to give him their congratulations. With Toscanini not considered, Puccini hoped that Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
would conduct the premiere, but he declined and Gaetano Bavagnoli
Gaetano Bavagnoli
Gaetano Bavagnoli was an Italian conductor who was particularly known for his work within the field of opera. He was mainly active within Italy's major opera houses during the first third of the 20th century; although he did conduct at important international stages like the Metropolitan Opera in...
conducted. Once again, only Gianni Schicchi was received with real warmth.
Other early performances included the October 1920 production of Il trittico in German, at the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
. In the years following the premiere, Puccini made modifications to the three operas, but Gianni Schicchi required few. The principal change was to Rinuccio's arioso, "Avete torto", which was set in a higher pitch, to emphasise the tenor's voice.
By 1920 Puccini was facing increasing pressure, not only from impresarios but also from his publishing firm, Casa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
, to allow Il trittico to be broken up and presented separately. Initially, opera houses wanted to omit Suor Angelica, which had proved the least popular of the three, but some wished to omit Il tabarro as well. Puccini had left London confident that Il trittico would gain a place in the Covent Garden repertoire, but soon learned that the opera house's director, Henry V. Higgins, had removed Suor Angelica, feeling that the audience disliked it—Higgins would never stage it again. Puccini vociferously objected, as did his longtime London friend, Sybil Seligman, to no avail. Higgins then decided to remove Il tabarro as well, and stage Gianni Schicchi with a performance of the Russian ballet. Puccini stated, "This is a real betrayal", but in the end gave in and permitted the performance. However, Puccini was convinced that the three works should be performed together, and that his original conception was being "brutally torn to pieces". The Metropolitan Opera joined in the dismemberment—after 1920, it would not again present the three operas together until 1975.
Later performances
Gianni Schicchi returned to the Met in 1926, after Puccini's death, shorn of the other two parts of its operatic triptych, but instead mated to another one-act opera, Ruggero LeoncavalloRuggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
. The 1926 production, by Wilhelm von Wymetal, featured sets by Joseph Novak. In the following years at the Met, Gianni Schicchi would form part of a bill with such diverse works as Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
's Hänsel und Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic hag living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children...
, Italo Montemezzi
Italo Montemezzi
Italo Montemezzi was an Italian composer. He is best known for his opera L'amore dei tre re , once part of the standard repertoire....
's L'amore dei tre re
L'amore dei tre re
L'amore dei tre re is an opera in three acts by Italo Montemezzi. Its Italian-language libretto was written by playwright Sem Benelli who based it on his own play of the same title.-Performance history:...
, and even be incestuously mated with Puccini's own La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. In 1952, Novak's sets were revised by Wilhelm von Wymetal in a production which remained in service until 1958.
Among the leading singers associated with the opera, Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
was particularly prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. He first sang the role of Schicchi in the Rome production in 1951; in subsequent years he appeared in further Rome seasons, in Bologna, and at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan, where Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director.Recognized for her sense of style, musicality and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation, specializing in the bel canto repertoire with excursions into the verismo and Verdi...
sang Lauretta in Carlo Maestrini's production. Gobbi directed and sang in the 1969 production at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, and later that year performed in and directed the same version at the August 1969 Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
.
In 1974, the Met gave Gianni Schicchi its first new production since 1926. The production, by Fabrizio Melano, was paired with the Met debut of Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
. The following year, the Met revived Il trittico in the original form, combining the Melano production with new productions for the other two operas by the same director. The 1975 Schicchi featured Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director.Recognized for her sense of style, musicality and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation, specializing in the bel canto repertoire with excursions into the verismo and Verdi...
as Lauretta. Scotto also played the two other Il trittico heroines, a feat she repeated later that season, on tour, and when the three operas were again presented by the Met in 1981. When the production was revived again by the Met in 1989, Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas, OC , is a retired Canadian operatic soprano. She is especially well-known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.-Early life and career:...
sang the "trittico hat-trick
Hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick in sport is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls. A collection was held for Stephenson, and he...
". Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian is an American contralto who has appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties...
sang the mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
leads in all three operas (Zita in Gianni Schicchi) and Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil , was an American operatic baritone known for his exceptional voice and long career with the Metropolitan Opera, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles. F...
played Schicchi.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
put on a 2004 double bill of Gianni Schicchi and Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's The Miserly Knight
The Miserly Knight
The Miserly Knight, also The Covetous Knight, is a Russian opera in one act with music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, with the libretto based on the drama of Alexander Pushkin. The composer decided essentially to set the Pushkin text as written, and had Feodor Chaliapin in mind for the role of the Baron...
, in which the sets for the two operas (designed by Vicki Mortimer) are back-to-back on a turntable. In 2007, it was announced that Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
would be putting on Il trittico in the 2008–2009 season, with Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
to make his operatic directing debut with Gianni Schicchi. The production starred baritone Sir Thomas Allen, soprano Laura Tătulescu, and tenor Saimir Pirgu
Saimir Pirgu
Saimir Pirgu is an Albanian opera tenor.He first learned the violin, before he moved to Bozen, Italy, where Vito Brunetti discovered his tenor voice....
. The 2007 Royal Opera House production by Richard Jones
Richard Jones (director)
Richard Jones is a British theatre and opera director.- Early life :Jones was born in London, and studied at the University of Hull and London...
updated the action to a shabby 1940s Italy of "unemptied chamber pots, garish floral wallpaper and damp ceilings", with Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....
in the title role "a masterpiece of monstrous vulgarity". In the 2009 revival of this production, Schicchi was sung by Thomas Allen, while Gwynne Howell
Gwynne Howell
Gwynne Howell is a Welsh bass, particularly associated with Verdi and Wagner roles.-Life and career:Born in Gorseinon, Wales, he studied at the RMCM, where he sang Leporello in concert, and Hunding, Fasolt, and Pogner in staged performances.He joined the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1968, and the...
, as Simone, celebrated 40 years with the Royal Opera.
Critical reception
In reviewing the New York premiere, the critics greeted Gianni Schicchi warmly; most reviewers found it to be the best of the three operas. New York Herald TribuneNew York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
critic Henry Krehbiel described it as "so uproariously funny ... so full of life, humor, and ingenious devices". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reviewer James Gibbons Huneker considered the opera to be "a rollicking, madcap scherzo, overflowing with merry deviltries ... And the last shall be first." Huneker praised De Luca as "a most engaging rascal, fit for a minor niche in Moliere's gallery". The Times critic also was amused by Marto Malatesta as "The 'Kid' Gherardino, who is spanked by the irate family".
Rome's critics gave Il trittico generally a warmer reception, but still saw Gianni Schicchi as the best of the three. Alberto Gasco in La tribuna noted, "In terms of harmonic technique, Il tabarro and Schicchi advance quite startling elements of novelty. Nothing that contemporary art has produced escapes the studious and astute Giacomo Puccini." Gasco also stated that while many critics were waiting for the first two operas with their fists drawn, Gianni Schicchi disarmed these "hired assassins" with a "single glance". An anonymous reviewer in L'idea nazionale felt that the three works comprised a unified whole, but feared that Puccini was becoming less inventive. L'idea nazionale was a nationalist newspaper, and praised Puccini for returning to an Italian subject "after so many useless Japanese, American, Parisian digressions".
Modern productions, including those in an updated context, have been generally well received. Describing the 2004 Glyndebourne pairing with The Miserly Knight as "flip sides of the same coin", reviewer Edward Seckerson in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
found the Schicchi performance "a triumph of ensemble directing and playing, ... wickedly observed, sharp, focussed and funny". The New York Times gave a positive review to the Woody Allen 2008 production, which is set in a crowded tenement in which the boy Gherardino is practising knife thrusts. However, the critic questioned Allen's altered ending, in which Schicchi is stabbed by Zita as he addresses the audience. Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
critic Mark Swed deemed Allen's production one of the top ten moments in classical music for 2008, and applauded it for "hilarious wit and engaging musicality". Allen Rich of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
praised the piece, though he disliked Allen's idea of beginning the opera with a montage of old film clips, with credits featuring mock-Italian names.
Music
VerdiGiuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
said of Puccini, early in the latter's career, that "the symphonic element dominates in him", and within the triptych Gianni Schicchi has been compared by later analysts to that of the final presto movement of a three-movement symphony. With the fast-moving pace of the work, the set pieces are given a simpler melodic structure than those in the other two parts of the triptych. On stage, with the commedia dell'arte references, a humorous atmosphere is established from the very beginning. However, the music itself is of the 20th century; Edward Greenfield
Edward Greenfield
Edward Greenfield is an English music critic and broadcaster. He joined the Manchester Guardian in 1953, working as a lobby correspondent in the House of Commons. He has been a record critic for the newspaper since 1955, a music critic since 1964, and was chief music critic from 1977 until his...
refers to its "dissonant modernity", with simultaneous clashing chords suggesting that "Puccini was beginning to think in bi-tonal terms". Alongside these dissonant passages are others which opera scholar Julian Budden
Julian Budden
Julian Medforth Budden, BA, BMus was a British opera scholar, radio producer and broadcaster. He is particularly known for his three volumes on the operas of Giuseppe Verdi , a single volume biography in 1982 and a single volume work on Giacomo Puccini and his operas in 2002...
calls "bland, schoolroom diatonism
Diatonic scale
In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note, octave-repeating musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps for each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps...
".
Puccini's score is built around a series of motifs which recur through the opera, generally representing characters, situations and moods though sometimes without specific associations. The opening motif is a rapid burst of rhythmic music, described by Greenfield as of "almost Stravinskian sharpness", which quickly transforms into a mock-solemn dirge depicting the hypocritical grief of the Donati relatives. This juxtaposition of the humorous and the solemn pervades the opera; critic Ernest Newman
Ernest Newman
Ernest Newman was an English music critic and musicologist. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most celebrated British music critic in the first half of the 20th century." His style of criticism, aiming at intellectual objectivity in contrast to the more subjective...
suggests that it "keeps us perpetually suspended between the comic and the tragic". Other principal motifs include the theme associated with the lovers Rinuccio and Lauretta, introduced in Rinuccio's first solo "Salvati! Salvati!", and a short, formal woodwind statement which represents Donati's will. Rinuccio sings the name "Gianni Schicchi" to a jaunty four-note phrase which becomes Schicchi's personal motif, and it is heard again as Schicchi knocks on the door before his first appearance. The best-known theme in the opera, that associated with Lauretta, is introduced in the second part of Rinuccio's aria "Avete torto". The theme is briefly played on clarinet and violin as Lauretta enters with Schicchi, before its full expression in O mio babbino caro.
Budden dismisses the view that Lauretta's aria, at the mid-point of the opera, was a concession to popular taste; rather, "its position at the turning point of the action is precisely calculated to provide a welcome moment of lyrical repose". Andrew Davis, in his book on Puccini's late style, notes that Lauretta's aria, and the two interruptions by the young lovers ("Addio, speranza bella") as Schicchi mulls over the will, constitute interruptions in the Romantic style, delivered during a lengthy sequence of non-Romantic music. Another interruption, both dramatically and musically, is that provided by the appearance of Doctor Spinelloccio. The doctor's dissonant harmonies contrast sharply with the scena music for Schicchi and symbolise Spinelloccio's place as an outsider to the dramatic action of the opera.
Historian Donald Jay Grout has written that in this opera Puccini's comic skill is "seen at its most spontaneous, incorporating smoothly all the characteristic harmonic devices of his later period." Greenfield remarks on the score's inventiveness, imagination and flawless timing. Several critics have likened Gianni Schicchi to Verdi's Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
, similarly a masterpiece of operatic comedy from a composer more usually associated with tragedy. Both composers took the conventions of comic opera into consideration, choosing a baritone for the principal role, setting the tenor-soprano love story against family opposition to the marriage, and constructing a hoax which permits the happy ending. Charles Osborne
Charles Osborne (music writer)
Charles Thomas Osborne, born 24 November 1927 in Brisbane, Australia, is a journalist, critic, poet and novelist, and a recognised authority on opera. He was assistant editor of The London Magazine from 1958 until 1966, literature director of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1971 until 1986,...
cites in particular the trio for three female voices, Spogliati, bambolino, as equal to anything in Falstaff, "its exquisite harmonies almost turning the unprepossessing women into Wagnerian Rhine maidens", and its lilting melody reminiscent of Rossini.
Arias and musical numbers
Although the score is through-composed, within the general structure of the opera there are several identifiable numbers; four solos given to the three main characters, a trio and a brief love duet. Only Lauretta's O mio babbino caro, the best-known of the solos, is separable from its context and can be sung as a concert piece.| First lines | Performed by |
|---|---|
| Avete torto! (leading to) Firenze è come un albero fiorito "You're mistaken!", followed by "Florence is like a blossoming tree" |
Rinuccio |
| O mio babbino caro "Oh, my dear papa" |
Lauretta |
| Ah, che zucconi! Si corre dal notaio... "Oh, what blockheads! Run to the notary..." |
Gianni Schicchi |
| Trio: Spogliati, bambolino "Undress, little boy" |
Nella, La Ciesca, Zita |
| Prima un avvertimento "First, a word of warning" |
Gianni Schicchi |
| Duet: Lauretta mia, staremo sempre qui! "Lauretta mine, here we'll always stay" |
Rinuccio, Lauretta |
Recordings
Despite its popularity as a stage work, Gianni Schicchi was not available as a recording until after the Second World War, a neglect described by a Gramophone reviewer as "extraordinary". One of the earliest recordings, a Turin Radio 1950 broadcast performance conducted by Alfredo Simonetto, was praised for its lively presentation but was considered by critic Philip Hope-Wallace to be "too rough a piece of recording to be warmly recommended". By contrast, the 1958 recording under Gabriele SantiniGabriele Santini
Gabriele Santini was an Italian conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory....
, with a cast including Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
and Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles was a Spanish Catalan operatic soprano and recitalist whose career began in the early 1940s and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Her obituary in The Times noted that she must be counted “among the finest singers of the second half...
, was still being discussed nearly 50 years later as the classic performance, with Gobbi's singing at a standard rarely equalled. Among more recent recordings, that of the complete Trittico with the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
under Antonio Pappano
Antonio Pappano
Antonio Pappano is a British conductor and pianist of Italian parentage.Pappano's family relocated to England from Castelfranco in Miscano near Benevento, Italy in 1958 and at the time of his birth his parents worked in the restaurant business, but Pasquale Pappano, his father, was by vocation a...
(1998) has been generally recommended. There are numerous video recordings now available.
External links
- Gianni Schicchi at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
and Google Books (scanned books original editions) - Gianni Schicchi, English translation by Edoardo Petri (1918)
- Gianni Schicchi at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(audio recordings) - Libretto
- Woody Allen Production of Gianni Schicchi