Gianni Schicchi

Historical background#

Gianni Schicchi de’ Cavalcanti was a 13th-century Italian knight, a Florentine historical figure mentioned by Dante in the Inferno, Canto XXX. In that canto, Dante visits the Circle of Impersonators and sees a man savagely attacking another: he is told that the attacker is Schicchi, condemned to Hell for impersonating Buoso Donati and making Donati’s will highly favorable to Schicchi. Both Schicchi and Buoso Donati were historical characters. Dante’s verses, and the opera, are based on an actual incident that took place in 13th century Florence. Dante had several reasons for his harsh treatment of Schicchi: Dante’s wife, Gemma, was of the Donati family; the poet himself was of pure Florentine descent. He despised members of the peasant class such as Schicchi. Dante’s class prejudice displays itself in several episodes in the Inferno: in one, three noble Florentines, who have died and gone to Hell, ask Dante for news of their home city. A disgusted Dante tells them that the city is now dominated by the nouveau riche. According to Burton Fisher, Puccini and Forzano borrowed heavily from the tradition in . Schicchi himself recalls the roguish Harlequin, while his daughter Lauretta, whose romance is nearly foiled by Buoso’s relatives, resembles Columbina. Simone is drawn from Pantaloon, while the poverty-stricken Betto recalls the buffoonish valet Zanni. The Moor whose death momentarily scares the relatives, and his captain, are stock characters from .

Synopsis#

The story takes place in Florence, 1299. As Buoso Donati lies dead in his curtained four-poster bed, his relatives gather round to mourn his passing, but are really more interested in learning the contents of his will. Among those present are his cousins Zita and Simone, his poor-relation brother-in-law Betto, and Zita’s nephew Rinuccio. Betto mentions a rumour he has heard that Buoso has left everything to a monastery; this disturbs the others and precipitates a frantic search for the will. The document is found by Rinuccio, who is confident that his uncle has left him plenty of money. He withholds the will momentarily and asks Zita to allow him to marry Lauretta, daughter of Gianni Schicchi, a newcomer to Florence. Zita replies that if Buoso has left them rich, he can marry whom he pleases; she and the other relatives are anxious to begin reading the will. A happy Rinuccio sends little Gherardino to fetch Schicchi and Lauretta. As they read, the relatives’ worst fears are soon realised; Buoso has indeed bequeathed his fortune to the monastery. They break out in woe and indignation and turn to Simone, the oldest present and a former mayor of Fucecchio, but he can offer no help. Rinuccio suggests that only Gianni Schicchi can advise them what to do, but this is scorned by Zita and the rest, who sneer at Schicchi’s humble origins and now say that marriage to the daughter of such a peasant is out of the question. Rinuccio defends Schicchi in an aria (“You’re mistaken”), after which Schicchi and Lauretta arrive. Schicchi quickly grasps the situation, and Rinuccio begs him for help, but Schicchi is rudely told by Zita to “be off” and take his daughter with him. Rinuccio and Lauretta listen in despair as Schicchi announces that he will have nothing to do with such people. Lauretta makes a final plea to him with (“Oh, my dear papa”), and he agrees to look at the will. After twice scrutinizing it and concluding that nothing can be done, an idea occurs to him. He sends his daughter outside so that she will be innocent of what is to follow. First, Schicchi establishes that no one other than those present knows that Buoso is dead. He then orders the body removed to another room. A knock announces the arrival of the doctor, Spinelloccio. Schicchi conceals himself behind the bed curtains, mimics Buoso’s voice, and declares that he is feeling better; he asks the doctor to return that evening. Boasting that he has never lost a patient, Spinelloccio departs. Schicchi then unveils his plan in the aria (“Run to the notary”); having established in the doctor’s mind that Buoso is still alive, Schicchi will disguise himself as Buoso and dictate a new will. All are delighted with the scheme, and importune Schicchi with personal requests for Buoso’s various possessions, the most treasured of which are “the mule, the house and the mills at Signa”. A funeral bell rings, and everyone fears that the news of Buoso’s death has emerged, but it turns out that the bell is tolling for the death of a neighbour’s Moorish servant. The relatives agree to leave the disposition of the mule, the house and the mills to Schicchi, though each, in turn, offers him a bribe. The women help him to change into Buoso’s clothes as they sing the lyrical trio (“Undress, little boy”). Before taking his place in the bed, Schicchi warns the company of the grave punishment for those found to have falsified a will: amputation of one hand, and then, exile from Florence. The notary arrives, and Schicchi starts to dictate the new will, declaring any prior will null and void. To general satisfaction, he allocates the minor bequests, but when it comes to the mule, the house and the mills, he orders that these be left to “my devoted friend Gianni Schicchi”. Incredulous, the family can do nothing while the lawyer is present, especially when Schicchi slyly reminds them of the penalties that discovery of the ruse will bring. Their outrage when the notary leaves is accompanied by a frenzy of looting as Schicchi chases them out of what is now his house. Meanwhile, Lauretta and Rinuccio sing a love duet, , as there is no bar to their marriage since Schicchi can now provide a respectable dowry. Schicchi, returning, stands moved at the sight of the two lovers. He turns to the audience and asks them to agree that no better use could be found for Buoso’s wealth: although the poet Dante has condemned him to hell for this trick, Schicchi asks the audience to forgive him in light of “extenuating circumstances.”

Composition history#

The one-act opera genre had become increasingly popular in Italy following the 1890 competition sponsored by publisher Edoardo Sonzogno for the best such work, which was won by the young Pietro Mascagni’s . With essentially completed by November 1899, Puccini sought a new project. Among sources he considered, before proceeding with Madama Butterfly, were three works by French dramatist Alphonse Daudet that Puccini thought might be made into a trilogy of one-act operas. After Butterfly premiered in 1904, Puccini again had difficulty finding a new subject. He further considered the idea of composing three one-act operas to be performed together but found his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, firmly opposed to such a project, convinced that it would be expensive to cast and produce. The composer then planned to work with his longtime librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa, on an opera about Marie Antoinette, a project frustrated by the librettist’s illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, “Will we go back to it? Maria Antonietta If I find three one-act works that suit me, I’ll put off M.A.” Puccini pursued neither project, as Giacosa’s illness led to his death in September 1906. In March 1907, Puccini wrote to Carlo Clausetti, Ricordi’s representative in Naples, proposing three one-act operas based on scenes from stories by Russian novelist Maxim Gorky. By May the composer had set aside this proposal to concentrate on the project which became , although he did not wholly abandon the idea of a multiple-opera evening. His next idea in this vein, some years later, was for a two-opera bill, one tragic and one comic; he later expanded this to include a third opera with a mystic or religious tone. By November 1916 Puccini had completed the “tragic” element, which became , but he still lacked ideas for the other two works. Finally, librettist Giovacchino Forzano presented the composer with two works of his own, which became and . The latter would be Puccini’s first setting of a comic text; although his earlier operas, for example , contain comic episodes, these are merely ancillary to the drama to provide contrast. Forzano wrote to Tito Ricordi, Giulio’s son, on 3 March 1917: I sent the libretto of to Maestro Puccini some days ago. He has declared himself – kind as he is – very satisfied … I have also finished a brief outline of a plot based on . You know the Maestro’s opinion of this subject, which is rich in possibilities and whose comic nature is quite out of the ordinary. In fact, Puccini was at first less than enthusiastic about the idea for this comic opera – Florence as a setting did not appeal to him, and he feared the public would have little interest in the subject. However, he soon became interested and did some work on the piece even while composing . The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to , although the war news and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which Puccini lost a sister, distracted him from his work. The first draft was completed on 20 April 1918, and Puccini continued to refine and orchestrate it through the summer of 1918. With the trilogy complete, Puccini had to decide on a place for the premiere. In 1918, travel was risky and uncertain. Puccini received an offer from Buenos Aires which he refused, unwilling to have so complex a work first performed overseas in his absence. He finally agreed that the premiere could take place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, without his being there, on the basis of performing instructions which he supplied to the conductor. proved to be the last opera completed by Puccini.

Early performances#

was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918, with Roberto Moranzoni conducting, as the final part of . While the sold-out house In the Evening Sun, W.J. Henderson called it “one of the most delightful bits ever put upon the Met stage”. The undoubted “pearl of the evening”, he said, was Lauretta’s aria which, despite a public notice forbidding encores, was repeated through popular insistence. was performed at the Met’s Philadelphia opera house on 17 December with the same cast, before returning to New York for five more performances during the 1918/19 season. The Italian premiere, more important to Puccini than the New York world premiere, took place on 11 January 1919. was again warmly received, more so than the first two operas of . At the Rome premiere, the part of Rinuccio was sung by the Canadian tenor Edward Johnson, a future general manager of the Met. Johnson later recalled that, at the composer’s request, he had dragged a mock-reluctant Puccini from the wings to acknowledge the house’s applause. This took place on 18 June 1920; King George V and Queen Mary were present, and called Puccini to their box to give him their congratulations. With Toscanini not considered, Puccini hoped that Sir Thomas Beecham would conduct the premiere, but he declined and Gaetano Bavagnoli conducted. Once again, only was received with real warmth. Other early performances included the October 1920 production of in German, at the Vienna State Opera. Puccini had left London confident that would gain a place in the Covent Garden repertoire, but soon learned that the opera house’s director, Henry V. Higgins, had removed , feeling that the audience disliked it. In fact, Higgins would never stage it again. Puccini vociferously objected, as did his longtime London friend, Sybil Seligman, to no avail. Higgins then decided to remove , and stage together with a Russian ballet presentation. Puccini retorted, “This is a real betrayal”, but in the end gave in and permitted the performance. Puccini, however, was still convinced that the three works should be performed together and that his original conception was being “brutally torn to pieces”.

Later performances#

returned to the Met in 1926, after Puccini’s death, shorn of the other two parts of its operatic triptych, but instead mated to Ruggero Leoncavallo’s two-act opera . Gobbi directed and sang in the 1969 production at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, and later that year performed in and directed the same version at the August 1969 Edinburgh Festival. In 1974, the Met gave its first new production since 1926. The production, by Fabrizio Melano, was paired with the Met debut of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. The following year, the Met revived in the original form, combining the Melano production with new productions for the other two operas by the same director. The 1975 performance of featured Renata Scotto as Lauretta. Scotto also played the two other heroines, a feat she repeated later that season, on tour, and when the three operas were again presented by the Met in 1981. When the production was revived again by the Met in 1989, Teresa Stratas sang the " hat-trick". Lili Chookasian sang the mezzo-soprano leads in all three operas (Zita in ) and Cornell MacNeil played Schicchi. In 2007, Los Angeles Opera announced that it would be staging in the 2008/2009 season, with Woody Allen making his operatic directing debut in . The production starred baritone Sir Thomas Allen, soprano , and tenor Saimir Pirgu. A 2015 performance, then directed by Matthew Diamond and starring Plácido Domingo in the title role, was filmed for television in association with various international broadcasters, such as Westdeutscher Rundfunk, ARTE, and NHK. The 2007 Royal Opera House production by Richard Jones updated the action to a shabby 1940s Italy of “unemptied chamber pots, garish floral wallpaper and damp ceilings”, with Bryn Terfel in the title role “a masterpiece of monstrous vulgarity”. In the 2009 revival of this production, Schicchi was sung by Thomas Allen, while Gwynne Howell, as Simone, celebrated 40 years with the Royal Opera.

Critical reception#

In reviewing the New York premiere, the critics greeted warmly; most reviewers found it to be the best of the three operas. New York Herald Tribune critic Henry Krehbiel described it as “so uproariously funny … so full of life, humor, and ingenious devices”. The New York Times reviewer James Huneker considered the opera to be “a rollicking, madcap scherzo, overflowing with merry deviltries … And the last shall be first.” The Times critic was also amused by Marto Malatesta as “The ‘Kid’ Gherardino, who is spanked by the irate family”. Gasco also stated that while many critics were waiting for the first two operas with their fists drawn, disarmed these “hired assassins” with a “single glance”. An anonymous reviewer in felt that the three works comprised a unified whole, but feared that Puccini was becoming less inventive. was a nationalist newspaper, and praised Puccini for returning to an Italian subject “after so many useless Japanese, American, Parisian digressions”. Modern productions, including those in an updated context, have been generally well received. Describing the 2004 Glyndebourne pairing with The Miserly Knight as “flip sides of the same coin”, reviewer Edward Seckerson in The Independent found the performance “a triumph of ensemble directing and playing, … wickedly observed, sharp, focussed and funny”. The New York Times gave a positive review to the Woody Allen 2008 production, which is set in a crowded tenement in which the boy Gherardino is practising knife thrusts. However, the critic questioned Allen’s altered ending, in which Schicchi is stabbed by Zita as he addresses the audience. Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed deemed Allen’s production one of the top ten moments in classical music for 2008, and applauded it for “hilarious wit and engaging musicality”. Allen Rich of Variety praised the piece, though he disliked Allen’s idea of beginning the opera with a montage of old film clips, with credits featuring mock-Italian names.

Music#

Giuseppe Verdi said of Puccini, early in the latter’s career, that “the symphonic element dominates in him”, and has been compared by later analysts to that of the final presto movement of a three-movement symphony. On stage, with the references, a humorous atmosphere is established from the very beginning. However, the music itself is of the 20th century; Edward Greenfield refers to its “dissonant modernity”, with simultaneous clashing chords suggesting that “Puccini was beginning to think in bi-tonal terms”. Alongside these dissonant passages are others which opera scholar Julian Budden calls “bland, schoolroom diatonism”. Puccini’s score is built around a series of motifs that recur through the opera, generally representing characters, situations and moods though sometimes without specific associations. The opening motif is a rapid burst of rhythmic music, described by Greenfield as of “almost Stravinskian sharpness”, which quickly transforms into a mock-solemn dirge depicting the hypocritical grief of the Donati relatives. This juxtaposition of the humorous and the solemn pervades the opera; critic Ernest Newman suggests that it “keeps us perpetually suspended between the comic and the tragic”. Other principal motifs include the theme associated with the lovers Rinuccio and Lauretta, introduced in Rinuccio’s first solo , and a short, formal woodwind statement that represents Donati’s will. Rinuccio sings the name “Gianni Schicchi” to a jaunty four-note phrase which becomes Schicchi’s personal motif, Another interruption, both dramatically and musically, is that provided by the appearance of Doctor Spinelloccio. The doctor’s dissonant harmonies contrast sharply with the scena music for Schicchi and symbolise Spinelloccio’s place as an outsider to the dramatic action of the opera. The music historian Donald Jay Grout has written that in this opera Puccini’s comic skill is “seen at its most spontaneous, incorporating smoothly all the characteristic harmonic devices of his later period.” Greenfield remarks on the score’s inventiveness, imagination and flawless timing. Several critics have likened to Verdi’s Falstaff, as both are masterpieces of operatic comedy from composers more usually associated with tragedy. Charles Osborne cites in particular the trio for three female voices, , as equal to anything in Falstaff, “its exquisite harmonies almost turning the unprepossessing women into Wagnerian Rhine maidens”, and its lilting melody reminiscent of Rossini.

Arias and musical numbers#

Although the score is through-composed, within the general structure of the opera there are several identifiable numbers: four solos given to the three main characters, a trio and a brief love duet. Only Lauretta’s , the best-known of the solos, is separable from its context and can be sung as a concert piece.

Recordings#

Despite its popularity as a stage work, was not available as a recording until after the Second World War, a neglect described by a Gramophone reviewer as “extraordinary”. One of the earliest recordings, a Turin Radio 1950 broadcast performance conducted by , was praised for its lively presentation but was considered by the critic Philip Hope-Wallace to be “too rough a piece of recording to be warmly recommended”. By contrast, the 1958 recording under Gabriele Santini, with a cast including Tito Gobbi and Victoria de los Ángeles, was still being discussed nearly 50 years later as the classic performance, with Gobbi’s singing at a standard rarely equalled. Among more recent recordings, that of the complete with the London Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Pappano (1998) has been generally recommended. There are numerous video recordings now available.

Sources#

External links#

• Gianni Schicchi at Internet Archive and Google Books (scanned books original editions)
• Gianni Schicchi, English translation by Edoardo Petri (1918)
• Gianni Schicchi at Internet Archive (audio recordings)
• Woody Allen Production of Gianni Schicchi