Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Puccini was a crowd pleaser but even he couldn't ignore the currents of musical change following in the wake of Debussy, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Debussy's influence is obvious in his score for La fanciulla del west, produced at the Met Dec. 10, 1910. The advent of the First World War caused musical downsizing between 1914-1918 for everyone, so Puccini produced three one act operas with slighly smaller orchestral forces which also premiered at the Met Dec. 14, 1918. The score is masterful, pointing towards a future Puccini only partially fulfilled with the unfinished Turandot of 1926. Puccini died before creating the modernist work he might have produced following Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu.
This production of Il Trittico, recorded live at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, 8 February 2007 is fresh, insightful and entertaining. Both Il tabarro and Suor Angelica are spared dirge-like productions in director Cristina Pezzoli's clean, crisp versions of the first two operas of Puccini's triptych. She removes everything superfluous, leaving behind the essence of the two harrowing plays. Both the Verismo in Il tabarro and the religious ecstasy of Suor Angelica are not over emphasized. The drama is naturalistic, the sets and costumes spare and stylized, so we are never forced into a downward spiral of bathos. The female lead in all three operas is Amarilli Nizza and she is splendid, obviously the singing and acting star of this production. The rest of the cast is equally as good.
The final opera is, as always, the most entertaining, the most fun of the three. This Gianni Schicchi, a tale of rampant greed and fraudulent wills that is based on a story from Dante, now updated to the era of it's composition, is wonderful. With imaginatively designed and beautifully realized comic costumes, and a simple but effective set, the performers shine. Surrounded by all of this artfully done comic freedom, they sing and act with natural comedic grace. It is very refreshing to see such creative excellence. This is my favorite Gianni Schicchi thus far on DVD. Alberto Mastromarino, the rotund, treacherous but hilarious Schicchi, is a hoot! It's a performance that will remain with you a long time. The Orchestra della Fondazione Arturo Toscanini and the Coro Lirico Amadeus, conducted by Julian Reynolds (not Nello Santi), play and sing splendidly. The entire large cast is excellent. Sound is exemplary in Dolby Digital 5.1, with an effect that is beautifully natural. Voices are wrapped in a spacious soundfield: airy and surrounded by/enfolded within their natural stage distances. Costumes are abstract, beautiful, funny and colorful. I adored their comic book wit. Sets are simply designed and very effective. There was creative intelligence involved in this production and it shows.
Modern and stylized, serious in the first two operas, very funny in the last, this is a splendid Il Trittico. Most strongly recommended.
Mike Birman
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