Il Trittico
Mar. 28th, 2023 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootI was aware he might not be ready for 4 hours at the opera, but then about an hour of that was interval, and in any case, three one act operas make for an easier escape route than one Götterdämmerung, where you just have to hang on in there. In fact, if he ever truly deserves chastising, I'll just buy us a week where we have to watch the Ring cycle from start to finish pausing only for sandwiches and alcohol. He'd better not be crossing me!
Il Trittico means The Tryptich, though the three are seldom performed together. I think that's a shame though, because they are perfect foils to each other.
The first was Il Tabarro, 'the cloak'. Where barge owner discovers wife having an affair, kills his rival, and then kills her, though this last was left out of the current production. Il Tabarro lends itself to several genres and styles,melodrama, 1940s gaslight, Victorian gothic, it had everything, and I knew we would be fine when I saw R loving it. Though Puccini's eye-rollingly awful to his heroines, he's sweet to a crazy cat lady here, so I'll let him off.
Suor Angelica was a total contrast, convent life and the Holy Virgin, choral sweetness so delicate it contrasted fantastically well to the roughness of life on the Seine. But much of it felt like filler until the arrival of The Princess, a marvellously cruel Dolores Umbridge alike. The final scene tore one's heart out of one's chest. It should have been mawkish, but instead it was broken and painful, leaving no dry eyes in the house. OK, maybe R's. Maybe. Not mine. I still don't know if that's down to the genius of Puccini or the sheer power of the singer.
Then came Gianni Schicchi, the sparkling one, with its black comedy based around a dead man's family trying to forge his will. This was just so funny, the music came second to the daftness of the plot. Of course,Gianni will sort it all out for the young lovers, cos greedy relatives are no match for him, even though the audience can see what's coming a mile off. I have never heard O Mio Babbino Caro in context before. The whole thing sounds as though it should be heart breaking, but the lyrics are rather less profound than they sound:
Oh darling daddy
I like him, he is so handsome!
(I nearly died. The love of her life was a clueless young man wearing a shirt and knitted 70s tank top. He looked like one of those lecturers in the first year of tenure before they discover pipes and beards)
I want to go to Porta Rossa
To buy the ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio
And throw myself in the Arno!
I am pining, I am tormented!
Oh God, I would want to die!
Father, have pity, have pity!
Father, have pity, have pity!
And because today is grey and could use a little beauty, here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1C8NFDdFYg
Il Trittico means The Tryptich, though the three are seldom performed together. I think that's a shame though, because they are perfect foils to each other.
The first was Il Tabarro, 'the cloak'. Where barge owner discovers wife having an affair, kills his rival, and then kills her, though this last was left out of the current production. Il Tabarro lends itself to several genres and styles,melodrama, 1940s gaslight, Victorian gothic, it had everything, and I knew we would be fine when I saw R loving it. Though Puccini's eye-rollingly awful to his heroines, he's sweet to a crazy cat lady here, so I'll let him off.
Suor Angelica was a total contrast, convent life and the Holy Virgin, choral sweetness so delicate it contrasted fantastically well to the roughness of life on the Seine. But much of it felt like filler until the arrival of The Princess, a marvellously cruel Dolores Umbridge alike. The final scene tore one's heart out of one's chest. It should have been mawkish, but instead it was broken and painful, leaving no dry eyes in the house. OK, maybe R's. Maybe. Not mine. I still don't know if that's down to the genius of Puccini or the sheer power of the singer.
Then came Gianni Schicchi, the sparkling one, with its black comedy based around a dead man's family trying to forge his will. This was just so funny, the music came second to the daftness of the plot. Of course,Gianni will sort it all out for the young lovers, cos greedy relatives are no match for him, even though the audience can see what's coming a mile off. I have never heard O Mio Babbino Caro in context before. The whole thing sounds as though it should be heart breaking, but the lyrics are rather less profound than they sound:
Oh darling daddy
I like him, he is so handsome!
(I nearly died. The love of her life was a clueless young man wearing a shirt and knitted 70s tank top. He looked like one of those lecturers in the first year of tenure before they discover pipes and beards)
I want to go to Porta Rossa
To buy the ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio
And throw myself in the Arno!
I am pining, I am tormented!
Oh God, I would want to die!
Father, have pity, have pity!
Father, have pity, have pity!
And because today is grey and could use a little beauty, here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1C8NFDdFYg
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