IL TABARRO and SUOR ANGELICA from COVENT GARDEN

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

THE ROYAL OPERA DVD COLLECTION

IL TRITTICO: SUOR ANGELICA and IL TABARRO.

GIANNI SCHICCHI REVIEWED SEPARATELY ELSEWHERE ON THIS BLOG.

MUSIC: GIACOMO PUCINI

IL TABARRO – LIBRETTO BY GIUSEPPE ADAMI, after Didier Gold’s play La Houppelande

Director: Richard Jones

Set Designer: Ultz

Costume Designer: Nicki Gillebrand

The Orchestra  and Chorus of the Royal Opera House led by Antonio Pappano

Cast:

Michele – Lucio Gallo

Giorgietta – Eva Maria Westbroek

Luigi – Aleksandrs Antonenko

Tinca – Alan Oke Talpa – Jeremy White Frugola – Irina Mishura Song Seller – Ji-Min Park

Lovers – Anna Devin & Robert Anthony Gardiner

SUOR ANGELICA – LIBRETTO BY GIOVACCHINO FORZANO

Director: Richard Jones

Set Designer: Miriam Buether

Costume Designer: Nicki Gillebrand

The Orchestra  and Chorus of the Royal Opera House led by Antonio Pappano

Cast:

Sister Angelica: Ermonela Jaho  The Princess – Anna Larsson

With: Elena Zilio, Melissa Alder, Kate MacCarney, Elizabeth Sikora, Eryl Royle, Anna Devin, Kathy Batho, Elizabeth Key, Elizabeth Woollett, Gillian Webster, Kathleen Wilder and Irina Mishura

Richard Jones’ production of Puccini’s IL TRITTICO for the Royal Opera is very effective. With scenic design by Ultz and costuming by Nicki Gillebrand Jones’ slightly updated concept works well for IL TABARRO which in its original, world premiere 1918 production was set on a barge in the River Seine around the turn of the century.

In the case of Jones’ SUOR ANGELICA the updating works less well, with the nuns got up in outfits that do no favors to any of them and the action set in a drab convent hospital designed by Miriam Buether lacking the florally enchanting garden Puccini evokes in his music and Giovacchino Forzano would have wanted as a setting for his libretto, all of it once more going to prove that the updating and arbitrary relocating of operas is a touch and go thing, especially as in this case, with the miracle written in by Puccini into this score all but absent.

The cast for IL TABARRO is uniformly strong, with the superb Lucio Gallo a vocal and dramatic tower of strength as Michele, Eva Maria Westbroek making a strong impression as a vulnerable Giorgietta, and Aleksandrs Antonenko in fine voice as a muscular Luigi. The supporting roles are excellently handled by Alan Oke, Jeremy White, the superb Irina Mishura as Fruggola,  Ji-Min Park, Anna Devin, and Robert Anthony Gardiner.

The cast of SUOR ANGELICA is sheer perfection, with Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho sublime as the guilt-ridden but still defiantly strong nun, and Swedish contralto Anna Larsson note perfect as the unbending Princess.

Keeping the two principals excellent company the ever-impressive Elena Zilio excels in her supporting role along with Melissa Alder, Kate MacCarney, Elizabeth Sikora, Eryl Royle, Anna Devin, Kathy Batho, Elizabeth Key, Elizabeth Woollett, Gillian Webster, Kathleen Wilder and Irina Mishura sing and act angelically.

In both scores, Antonio Pappano is exemplary, bringing out the blood and guts elements of IL TABARRO and the poignancy and lyricism of SUOR ANGELICA.

This DVD is part of the Royal Opera Collection (  OA1337BD / OABD7291BD).    

Rafael de Acha    ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”