by Giacomo Puccini
seen at Holland Park on 13 June 2015
Three one act operas - 'Il Tabarro', set on a barge in Paris, 'Suor Angelica', set in an Italian convent, and 'Gianni Schicchi' , set in Florence, were composed by Puccini as a triptych in 1916-18. Amongst a large cast, Anna Sophie Duprels sang the parts of Giorgetta in 'Il Tabarro' and the eponymous Suor Angelica, Rosalind Plowright sang the part of Angelica's aunt, Stephen Gadd sang Michele, the bargeman in 'Il Tabarro', Jeff Gwaltney sang Luigi in 'Il Tabarro', Richard Burkhard sang the eponymous Gianni Schicchi, Anna Patalong sang his daughter Lauretta and William Robert Allenby sang her lover Simone.
Here they form part of Holland Park Opera's 2015 summer season - a large canopy is erected in the Park beside one of the buildings, to house the stage, orchestra pit and auditorium. 'Gianni Schicchi' is a revival of the 2012 production; the other two are new productions.
The three pieces are very different - the first a domestic melodrama in working-class Paris, the second a tragedy of family repression and loss in which an aristocratic girl has been sequestered in a convent for seven years after bearing an illegitimate son, and the third a light-hearted comedy about the re-writing of a will after the death of a wealthy man. At Holland Park, all three received excellent performances packing emotional weight in the first two, and relieving it with farcical insouciance in the third.
