Gianni Schicchi & La vida breve

After the dark, suicidal angst of La vida breve, Gianni Schicchi is the perfect companion piece – a satyr play played out around the death-bed of a rich man.  The scheming relatives who vie for a chunk of his fortune are all too recognizable types, revealing the greed and avarice which lies just below the thin veneer of their family loyalties.

Puccini’s only outright comedy is based on an episode in Dante’s Inferno, and Christopher Alden’s new production locates the action in the early Renaissance, at a time when medieval cobwebs were blown away by the fresh air of radical new thinking and creative innovation.  The production also nods slyly in the direction of the timeless themes which Puccini exploits to brilliantly farcical effect – after all, those scheming relatives may bear an uncanny resemblance to our own family members!

With its vivid characterization and the spontaneity of its musical invention, Gianni Schicchi is a comic masterpiece in miniature, and features one of Puccini’s best-loved arias, ‘O mio babbino caro’.

Sung in Italian with English titles
Performance lasts approximately 1 hour