A Night at the Opera-Part Two-Review of Gianni Schicchi

Gianni Schicchi
Opera McGill

Review of the first opera, L’Enfant et les Sortileges, here.

[insert link to first part]

Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi is fun little slapsticker. It reminds one of a drawer room comedy or of opera buffa. A greedy family has arrived at the deathbed of their rich patriarch to get their inheritance. The only virtuous family member is young Rinuccio who wishes to marry impoverished Lauretta against his family’s wishes. Finding the will, Rinuccio only passes it to the family after extracting a promise that he can marry his love. They agree and he sends for Lauretta and her father Gianni Schicchi to share in the good news of the soon-to-be-revealed inheritance. But to the horror of the family, all of the wealth has been left to monks. They ponder changing the will but the penalty of the fraud is harsh, so Rinuccio suggests that wily Schicchi is the only one clever enough to pull off such a plot. When he arrives, he assists them and by the end turns the table on the family. Gooey treacly lovely little

is the highlight for many in Gianni Schicchi–it’s one of opera’s best known pieces to us uneducated rubes. If you don’t know it by name you know it from music boxes, snow globes, and pasta commercials.

Let the positive adjectives flow for this staging. The cast shines, their voices lovely, their acting guffaw-inducing without being annoying. The orchestra is fine in this case. The direction could have been a little tighter at times; the cast has some moments of milling around and some of the comedy could be punched up.

All and all and all a very enjoyable evening and if you are a McGill student you can listen to a podcast of the performance here.