Greedy relatives scheme with a clever fellow to rewrite a newly-deceased miser's will.
Director: Annabel Arden
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8815616/
Although Amazon lists the dvd as 74min, the opera is only 57:24.
I should have shopped better and held out for the Triptych with operas Il tabarro and Suor Angelica, since all 3 are 1-acts. This is Puccini's only comic opera, and his penultimate opera, the last being Turandot which had to be finished by a colleague.
Time: 1299
Place: Florence
First performance at New York, December 14, 1918
Costumes here invoke the time of the premiere, not 6+centuries prior, despite the year being mentioned in the lyrics, and the penalty for fraud being medieval.
Played for comedy. Title character comes from Dante's Inferno.
The soprano trio is lovely.
I can't find any reference to this, but I'd swear that the music of Lauretta's aria is from Madama Butterfly or some other Puccini work. Maybe it's just a popular concert piece; I can find most lyric sopranos singing O mio babbino caro on YouTube.
Well-paired with Rachmaninov: The Miserly Knight.
Well-paired with Rachmaninov: The Miserly Knight.
Cast:
GIANNI SCHICCHI Baritone : Alessandro CorbelliLAURETTA, his daughter Soprano : Sally Matthews
Relations of Buoso Donati:
ZITA, his cousin Contralto : Felicity Palmer
RINUCCIO, her nephew Tenor : Massimo Giordano
GHERARDO, nephew of Buoso Tenor : Adrian Thompson
NELLA, his Wife Soprano : Olga Schalaewa
GHERARDINO, their son Contralto : Christopher Waite
BETTO DI SIGNA, brother-in-law of Buoso Baritone or Bass : Maxim Mikhailov
SIMONE, BUOSO’S cousin Bass : Luigi Roni
MARCO, his son Baritone : Riccardo Novaro
LA CIESCA, his wife Mezzo-soprano : Marie McLaughlin
SPINELLOCCIO, a doctor Bass : Viacheslav Voynarovskiy
AMANTIO DI NICOLAO, a lawyer Baritone or Bass : Richard Mosley-Evans
Rated (none)
Glyndebourne Opera, cond. Jurowski; 8
