Newspaper Article

Big Disappointment: Jack O'Brien Directs Puccini

Waleson, Heidi

2007

Overview

Puccini's triptych comprises three quite different one-act operas: \"Il Tabarro,\" a verismo shocker in which a jealous barge owner murders his wife's lover; \"Suor Angelica,\" the tale of an aristocratic nun who commits suicide when she learns that her illegitimate child has died; and \"Gianni Schicchi,\" a comedy about a crafty Florentine who helps a greedy family collect an inheritance while securing a good chunk of it for himself. Mr. Smith's set for \"Tabarro\" was the fanciest: the barge, the warehouses, the quay, the high bridge overhead, the Seine, a glimpse of Notre Dame de Paris in the background, plus stunning lighting by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, which moved the time from a brilliant sunset to full darkness, with twinkling lights. \"Suor Angelica\" unfolded in a similar manner. There was the big set: a stone cloister with a church. And a lighting coup at the end: when rays from heaven, symbolizing the Virgin Mary's forgiveness of Angelica's suicide, poured down, and the image of the Virgin and Child on the church facade became suddenly three-dimensional and weirdly lifelike. The opera starts with a lot of busy exposition among the nuns, and it was hard to tell from the directing who was talking to whom. Barbara Frittoli handled the vocal challenges of the title role easily, but her acting was fitful rather than organic, and her aria \"Senza mama,\" in which she grieves over her son's death, didn't touch the heart. Once again, it was left to [Stephanie Blythe] to wake things up. As Angelica's stony aunt, the Princess, she was icily composed as she gave her niece the news: She is unforgiven and disinherited, and her child is dead.

• Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
• Subject: Il Trittico / O Brien, Jack / Opera