Cry, then laugh at CT Opera’s Puccini double bill
An intense tragedy is followed by a slapstick comedy as two one-act operas leave audiences heartbroken and tickled pink at the Artscape Theatre. By
One of Giacomo Puccini’s most touching arias is surely Senza Mamma in Suor Angelica, the opera in which it features, yet it isn’t typically mentioned among the Italian composer’s best-known works. That may be because Puccini’s legacy includes Tosca, Madama Butterfly and La Bohème, all up there among opera’s most beloved titles.
Suor Angelica is noteworthy as the only Puccini opera written exclusively for women’s voices; like most of his work, it utilises music to express the deep realism of fundamental emotions. He was interested in driving the audience to tears by getting to the raw core of the characters and expressing their truth through music and voice. Senza Mamma gets us there, and then some.
Don’t be fooled by the joyful tone and light timbre of the one-act opera’s opening scenes – he’s winding you up before punching you in the gut.
Taking aim at 17th-century Florentine aristocracy, Suor Angelica is about a nun who claims she misses nothing about the secular world beyond the nunnery where she resides. What unfolds, however, is the revelation of her scandalous backstory that spills out along with news that leads to tragedy.
It all starts with deceptive innocence. Nuns go about their daily duties; a pair of them are scolded for – oh dear! – missing evening prayers. Within this chorus of cheerful, frolicking women who are devoted to the Virgin, and who sing about the golden sunlight, Angelica sings about death being the loveliest time of life. Clearly, something’s up with Sister Angelica.
Then, out of the blue, her aunt, an elderly princess dressed in a piece of voluminous all-black couture, turns up at the convent. While Angelica, wearing just her simple robes, hopes to hear news of her family, it instead turns into an emotional bloodbath.
Her aunt, played by guest artist Minette du Toit-pearce, is a cold, heartless, uppercrust aristocrat who wants Angelica to sign a document relinquishing her inheritance.
The harshness of their sung dialogue rips through the almost diaphanous score, bringing an end to the frothy, sentimental tone of the preceding scenes.
And when Angelica asks for news of her illegitimate son – the boy she has not seen since he was born seven years ago and only once managed to kiss before she was relegated to the convent – her aunt casually announces that he’s already dead.
If ever there’s a reason to watch opera, it’s to hear Nobulumko Mngxekeza singing the part of Sister Angelica in the aftermath of hearing that tragic news. Senza Mamma, the aria that reveals her desperate heartache, is transcendent, and Mngxekeza lets the audience feel the depths of her despair.
Puccini’s trick, perhaps, is how he deals with the aftermath of this terrible disquiet and returns the audience to an elevated emotional state.
For Angelica, death is the only cure for the heartache she feels, and she poisons herself.
In a twist on Puccini’s ending, which sees Angelica being reunited with her son in heaven, director
Magdalene Minnaar has instead fashioned a visually striking finale that sees her bringing on stage the Cape
Town
Opera
Children’s
Chorus.
It works as a grand visual coda, briefly transporting the audience from earthbound tragedy to a kind of enigmatic, soaring, ethereal realm accompanied by music that’s reassuringly sentimental and uplifting – even hopeful.
And now for something lighter...
The second half of this Puccini double bill also has death at its centre, but it is the very antithesis of Suor Angelica.
Conjuring the verging-on-slapstick atmosphere of Italian commedia dell’arte, Gianni Schicchi features a cast of characters whose inability to rein in their baser instincts is used to tremendous comic effect.
It is laugh-out-loud funny, almost hysterical in places, and even gets a bit messy as these money-grubbers scheme to get their hands on the wealth left behind by their deceased relative.
The fact that the just-departed Buoso Donati is on stage for most of the opera only heightens the comedy. Donati’s death, rather than causing his family to mourn, brings out their worst. First,
they feign sorrow, swanning about and even tripping across the stage like cartoon characters. But soon, as their greed takes hold, they scavenge through his bedroom to find his will, and then, once they find themselves disappointed by its contents, scheme to alter the expired man’s wishes.
They summon the titular Gianni Schicchi and go with his scheme to create a counterfeit will. Schicchi’s plan is to lie in Donati’s bed and pretend to be the old man in his final hours. A notary will be summoned and together they will rewrite Donati’s final testament under a veneer of legitimacy.
Of course, Donati’s relatives do not reckon with Schicchi’s own self-interests, nor his capacity to mastermind a great swindle.
Sung by Conroy Scott – an enormously deft vocalist and an equally adept character actor – Schicchi is also a captivating crook.
Just when you think he’s one type of barrel-chested conman, he pinches his voice, pretends to be Donati and sings in a comic approximation of a bedridden old man’s false register.
The entire cast brings their A-game, leaning into their caricatures to pull off what is ultimately non-stop comedy; it is good to see an opera ensemble having such a blast.
And while both the situation and the execution are in the realm of farce, it’s a testament to Minnaar’s feel for comedy that, in the opera’s final moments, when the dead man’s relatives loot his bedchamber, they not only carry off his valuables but even pilfer his mattress.
SOMERSET WEST
Vergelegen Wine Farm, Lourensford Rd RMB Starlight Classics
This is classical music with an African twist. The performers of the evening include Goitsemang Lehobye, Lunga Hallam and Zolani Mahola, along with the
Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Chevonne Plaatjies and Brandon Phillips. The hosts of the evening are conductor Richard Cock and media personality Elana Afrika. The showcase begins at 7.30pm. Tickets cost R375 on Quicket.
1 March