Three colours, three moods, three registers. And yet Puccini conceived this triptych as a whole from the outset. He interweaves these three one-act operas, from Il tabarro, a drama of passion set on the quays of the Seine in the early 20th century, to Gianni Schicchi, a burlesque farce set in medieval Florence, and Suor Angelica, a mystical tragedy set in a 17th-century convent.
Director Christof Loy, making his Paris Opera debut, places these works in an unusual order, progressing from comedy to drama – Gianni Schicchi, Il tabarro and Suor Angelica – conceived as a journey parallel to the chronology of the three cantiche of Dante’s Divine Comedy – Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The first cantica is called forth through the character of Buso Donati and a form of macabre Machiavellianism, Purgatory is echoed in the sentimental wanderings and repentance of the pair of boatmen, and Paradise echoes in the forgiveness and mystical transcendence accorded to Suor Angelica. So, three operas with three women but just one performer. Lauretta’s youthful freshness, Giorgetta’s questioning of romantic love and Angelica’s stigmatisation for bearing a child out of wedlock, trace what could be the journey through life of one and the same woman. A trajectory marked by milestones, embodied in this production for coherence’s sake, by one and the same performer – Asmik Grigorian – whose performance has been acclaimed as one of the most outstanding seen and heard on the stage of Opéra Bastille in recent years.
Streamed on Friday 18 July 2025 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
The post Puccini in Paris appeared first on Slippedisc.
