In this double bill of early twentieth century one-act operas Opera North give us a stirring evening of high drama. Both Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve and Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi are a brilliantly performed in a staging which captures the passion, the melancholy and the fun that opera can create.
De Falla’s bleak tragedy La Vida Breve (The Brief Life) is the first half. Salud, a young gypsy seamstress, is passionately in love with Paco, the son of a rich landowner, with the two . What she doesn't know is that Paco is engaged to another, a wealthy girl from the other side of town. Indeed Salud and her grandmother are making her dress. Salud confronts Paco at the reception who gives away his deceit before ordering her to leave. Heart broken, and in this production having mutilated herself with a pair of scissors, Salud dies before him, this apparently the ultimate gesture of contempt for a former lover.
De Falla is a big deal in Spain - he was formerly the face on the 100 peseta note - and, despite looking a bit like C-3PO, this gory Jilted John-esque tale is a treat. The modernised setting, all the action taking place within the almost sweatshop confines of the wedding dress factory, is used well to highlight the themes of the opera. The male chorus' opening repeated strain that their life is all work whilst they sit at the back smoking and leafing through magazines sets up the ideas of division and persecution whether due to sex, social background or ethnicity.
This is further highlighted by the clever creation of Daniel Norman's role of Worker. Usually an off-stage tenor, in this production he becomes a trans worker in the factory, ostracised by the group and raising themes about prejudice against the LGBT+ community. The orchestral dances too play an important role in the visual storytelling with them underscoring Salud's remembrances of her tryst with Paco turning violent and her bedecking in virginal white gown; both are unforgettable as set pieces in the narrative. As much as opera is designed to be heard, this production has much that enhances the music though what we see.
Anne Sophie Duprels is a touching, niave and love sick Salud and Elizabeth Sikora as Grandmother is an arresting presence; your eyes are drawn to her throughout. Equally Quirijn de Lang as the Flamenco Singer - part Wedding Singer Adam Sandler, part member of The Cramps - is a brilliant watch however I wasn't sold on Jesús Alvarez as Paco, his voice was lost under the sound of the orchestra, which could have done with maybe being turned down a notch or two.
After such a dark and violent first act, Gianni Schicchi lightens the mood. Revolving (literally) around the death-bed of rich Buoso, his relatives plot how they will divide his fortune. When a will surfaces saying it will all go to the local monastery, the only man who can save them is local lawyer Gianni Schicchi - disliked by the family for his new money airs and his daughter, Lauretta, with whom Buoso's nephew is in love. Lauretta, with no dowry, is not deemed a suitable match - echoing La Vida Breve's concerns with marriage and class. Convinced by his daughter's impassioned plea Schicchi disguises himself as Buoso and has the notary write a new will which will allow Lauretta and Rinuccio to marry - but who will get the prized posessions: the house in Florence, the prosperous flour mills or the valuable donkey?
Inspired by a few lines in Dante’s Inferno - Schicchi apparently swindled the family of Dante's wife out of their fortune in just this manner - it's a delightful little comedy. Again the physicality of the staging is impressive, in particular Tim Claydon as the puckish ghost of Buoso/embodiment of the author Dante. It's an opera with some beautiful music, most notably the aria O mio babbino caro - the music used in the advert for GTA3 and in numerous films from A Room with a View to Mr. Bean's Holiday - and it's excellently sung by Jennifer France. Christopher Purves is brilliant as the eponymous Schicchi and, in a very quick changeover from her turn as Grandmother, Elizabeth Sikora is brilliant again as one of the relatives, Zita.
Gianni Schicchi's real triumph is in its madcap comedy though - sheets of paper proliferate on the floor when the will is searched for, Buoso's death-bed spins around the set whilst paintings are set on fire and it rains with flour from dead man's mills indoors. There was also my personal favourite moment of the pompous doctor not noticing his patient is being played by another man due to being too busy playing on his phone. It's a production which demonstrates how opera can be funny and gleefully entertaining yet can turn, literally, on a knife edge toward the tragic. As a twosome these are two short productions which could give you the opera bug for life.
Opera North's performed La Vida Breve & Gianni Schicchi at the Theatre Royal on Tuesday 24 March 2015.
Opera North website
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