i'll have another puccini to go, please!

Oh, my!
I've only ever seen one opera before, and that was many years ago. I was working on my doctorate in Tallahassee in the late 1980's. The FSU school of theatre performed Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and I was hooked justthatfast. How could I not be? It's a musical in Italian!
Back in December, when the preliminary program for the Savannah Music Festival arrived, I pored through the contents, selecting the concerts I wanted. Lo and behold! Opera was being offered!
As soon as the sign-ups were open for the volunteers, I enlisted for the Friday, March 20th, evening show of the opera.
I was the very first to do so.
Yeah for me for knowing a good thing when I saw it!
I keep saying "opera", but it was actually a double bill! That's right, I was treated to two operas this evening! Each was only one-act in length, making the stories brief and yet very human and meaningful. The two were both by Giacomo Puccini, whose works are considered to be fairly recent, being only about 100 years old.
(smile)
Each of those performed tonight were about fifty minutes long and were super-titled in English. The backgrounds were created using multimedia to transpose images on the white scrim. Amazingly well done!
Also, the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra provided the music for the performances. Very nice collaboration!
Speaking of different groups working for a common good, the Savannah Voice Festival helped to provide the talent and financial backing for this ambitious presentation. Why? That was to honor the 80th birthday, and golden anniversary of the career, of their beloved baritone, Sherrill Milnes. In the photo below, the birthday celebrant is flanked by his wife and Rob Gibson, SMF's Artistic Director.

Now, back to the deliciousness of tonight!
The first opera, "Suor Angelica", was a tragic drama. It opens inside the convent, with the sisters kneeling and praying. Then the scene shifts and we see the outer wall of the building, with the nuns now in the garden! More beautifully executed scene shifts follow, with very minimal use of props on stage. What a boon to theatre!
Back to the nuns! Life is going along for them as it usually does... then a fancy carriage arrives and all changes for Sister Angelica. Sent to the nunnery seven years earlier, we find she is a princess, exiled for having an out-of-wedlock child. Her aunt is the visitor, bringing news of her younger sister's impending wedding.
Sister Angelica asks about her son. How is he? What is he like? What news of him?
The aunt reluctantly tells her that the boy became very ill two years ago and died.
Oh! Alas and alack! The nun screams in agony and her sisters rush to her side. Her aunt leaves sadly.
Time passes. Winter comes and goes, eventually giving way to spring... and flowers. The nun seeks out the ones she knows to be poisonous. Her goal is to drink the poison and join her son in heaven.
Then, as soon as the poison has passed her lips, she recoils in horror! Oh, no! She has committed a mortal sin by taking her life! She is condemned to the fires of hell (which we see all around her)!
She prays to the Madonna to forgive her, to grant her passage into the kingdom of Heaven! As one mother to The Mother, she begs to be allowed to be with her son!
Forgiveness is granted and the scene ends with her child coming forth to lead her into heaven.
Bravissimo!
After intermission, the romantic comedy begins. But first, the miserly, uber-rich uncle dies, surrounded by his family, including nieces and nephews. The city is Firenze, better known to us as Florence, in the old man's house.

There follows a mad scramble to find his will. Papers fly in the air, bedding is ruffled through, desk drawers are rummaged! Ah, success! Oh, alas! He has left all his fortune to the monastery! Oh, what sadness!
Enter "Gianni Schicchi", title character, a man with disdain for much and a lawyer's knowledge of finagling. He has been summoned by the nephew, Rinuccio, a young man in love with Gianni's daughter, Lauretta. The young man wants to ask her dad for her hand in marriage. However, she has no dowry, as her family is not landed, so the young man's family forbids the wedding. Gianni is outraged that the family is so petty!
However, at his daughter's urging, he agrees to look over the will for any loopholes. None are to be found, the monks will get it all, unless... unless... he convinces them to work with him to devise a new will. Of course they agree!
Quick! Summon a notary!
Quick! Exchange his clothes for the uncle's bedclothes!
All the while, the family members are telling him which bits of the estate they want.
All the while, they each try to bribe him for the most choice pieces: the mule, the house in Firenze, the mills in Signa.
All the while, he is hatching a plan of his own, agreeing in word only with their wishes.
The notary and witnesses arrive. All too willingly, they accept that the man in the bed is the dying uncle. Gianni dictates to the notary the family bequests, with them coming to the bed and thanking their "uncle" for his generosity. Then the trouble begins! The "uncle" grants the mule, the house and the mills to "his good friend, Gianni Schicchi"! The family is in an uproar!
But what can they say? If they reveal him to be a fraud, then all will be exiled, with stumps for hands. Oh, alas and alack!
But now Lauretta has a dowry and she and Rinuccio will be wed!
All is well that ends well!
Bravissimo!!!
Such great fun!
I am so excited to be doing this again on Sunday afternoon!!!