GIANNI SCHICCHI & SUOR ANGELICA
2024.06.22(SAT)19:30
Jinji Lake Concert Hall SCAC
Conductor |XU Zhong
Bariton︱Piero Terranova acts Gianni Schicchi
Soprano︱Laura Giordano acts Lauretta
Soprano︱HE Hui acts Suor Angelica
Shanghai Opera House Chorus
PUCCINI GIANNI SCHICCHI
SUOR ANGELICA
*Program is subject to change
NOTICE TO AUDIENCE
1. DURATION Approximately 119 minutes with a 15-min intermission 2. SUGGESTED AGE 8 and above 3. Minimum Height for Children : 1.3m (Jinji Lake Concert Hall) . Except For Performances Specially Arranged For Children.
Giacomo Puccini gained his fame as the author of grand works of multilayered dramatic effect and musical complexity. However, as any true master, he kept in touch with the times and composed Il Trittico in 1918, a modern trio of one - act operas. Under the baton of Maestro Xu Zhong, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra now presents a double - bill that stages two contrasting moods: GIANNI SCHICCHI and SUOR ANGELICA, the last two of The Triptych, to showcase Puccini’s genius in a new operatic genre.
“O mio babbino caro......” No one wrote a love song quite like Puccini, but in the farcical world of GIANNI SCHICCHI, nothing is quite as it seems. GIANNI SCHICCHI originates in Dante’s Inferno and tells the story of its titular character, a confidence trickster who impersonates a recently deceased nobleman for material and personal gain. Puccini imbues the music with some of his most playful and comical tunes. The mini - opera compensates its brevity with the richness of its arias and duets, which beautifully bring out different vocal qualities and moods in each character. SUOR ANGELICA —— an opera with an exclusively female cast —— tells the tragic tale of a woman who bears a child out of wedlock and is sent to a convent to repent for her sins. The sounds of the church bell, birdsong and morning chorus can be heard at the very beginning of the opera in which Puccini shows how music can evoke truly powerful emotions. We hear the heroin’s sorrow in “Senza mamma”, one of the most beautiful arias that Puccini ever wrote for the soprano voice.