Wexford Festival: Puccini: Man of the Theatre
National Opera House (Jerome Hynes Theatre) Wexford 27/10/24
William Niall Morris tenor/producer/director/writer, Giorgio D'Alonzo music director/ vocalist, Pantesilena Jaho piano, Liam Forrest tenor, Iúnó Connolly soprano, Andrew Henley tenor, Michael Ferguson baritone, Philip Kalmanovitch baritone, Isabel Garcia Araujo soprano, Meilir Jones bass-baritone, Federica Raja soprano Katie MacDonald mezzo-soprano.
In this penultimate report from the Wexford Festival Opera 2024 with the theme ‘Theatre Within Theatre’, I cover another WFO commission, marking the centenary of the composer’s death. I was back in the smaller Jerome Hynes Theatre in the National Opera House to catch William Niall Morris’ biographical one-acter, ‘Puccini: Man of the Theatre’, on the forenoon of 27th October, featuring excerpts from the operas, accompanied on piano by Pantesilena Jaho. William Niall Morris himself directed, as well as being in-role as the old composer, reminiscing and narrating. Music direction was by Giorgio D'Alonzo. The production was designed by Lisa Krugel and lit by Maksym Diedov.
The production is set in the Villa Puccini in Tuscany, with his study stage left and a table at Club della Bohème, the summer house where he entertained his social circle of musicians and artists, stage right. A large rug in the middle in front of where the singers enter represents a variety of locations but, as he indicates later that it is where he is buried; it must also be the chapel at the villa.
As the piano plays the melody of ‘O mio babbino caro’, the old composer enters, walking with the aid of a stick, taking up the song briefly, unaccompanied. After early biographical details from his birth in Lucca, Scottish tenor Liam Forrest, in-role as the young Puccini studying in Milan blown away by the opera he was seeing there, performed an aria (which I did not recognise) very beautifully. In Milan, Puccini meets and falls for Elvira, who unfortunately is already married to an unfaithful abusive greengrocer from Lucca, Narciso Gemignani. After his first big success, ‘Manon Lescaut’, he had big money and he and Elvira moved in together to a house in the country, she pregnant with his son, Antonio. The greengrocer continued to refuse Elvira a divorce until his death. In character as Elvira, English soprano Iúnó Connolly sang ‘In quelle trine morbide’ from that opera – really good. Up next was ‘La bohème’. The glorious duet from Act 4, ‘O Mimì tu più non torni’ was performed with Welsh tenor Andrew Henley as Rodolfo, Scottish baritone Michael Ferguson as Marcello and Welsh bass-baritone Meilir Jones entering later to (as far as I could tell) cover the lines of both Schaunard and Colline, in-role as bohemian friends of Puccini, Pietro, Luigi and Marco respectively. With the wealth from the success of ‘Bohème’, he bought the Villa and built the Club della Bohème. His next idea for an opera came from a Sardou play starring Sarah Bernhardt, ‘La Tosca’. He based the villain Scarpia on Gemignani the greengrocer. Canadian baritone Philip Kalmanovitch entered from the rear in a black mantle with a top hat and performed ‘Va, Tosca!’ the dramatic Te Deum sequence from the end of Act 1. As he moved towards the stage, he handed an orange to the lady seated at the end of a row beside me and a banana to a gentleman in the front row. The cloak swung open to reveal a greengrocer’s apron. Carrots and spring onions were brandished in either hand. I get it: Scarpia is a greengrocer, haha. But really? A super vocal performance of one of the most dramatic operatic moments, with fantastic playing from the pianist and the other vocalists offstage supplying the choral parts, reached its climax as the top hat was lifted to reveal a red pepper, trivialising one of the greatest, if not THE greatest operatic villains (ok, maybe Sparafucile in Rigoletto) and was ruined, for me at any rate. Thumbs down.
Next came ‘Madama Butterfly’. We are told of the two Manfredi sisters from the local village, Doria (Portuguese soprano Isabel Garcia Araujo) and Giulia (British mezzo-soprano Katie Macdonald), who are employed as servants at the Villa. They enter to clean and refresh the flowers in the vases and sing the beautiful duet of Cio-cio San and Suzuki from the end of Act 2, ‘Tutti i fior?’, where they adorn the house with flowers in hopeful anticipation of Pinkerton’s return. Super. Glaring disapprovingly, Elvira claps her hands imperiously and the girls leave. Puccini tells how he bought his yacht from the proceeds of ‘Butterfly’, naming it ‘Cio-cio San’ and was one of the first men in Italy to own a car. It was an accident in the car that broke his leg, pinned under the vehicle when Elvira and Antonio were thrown clear and unhurt, leading to three months in hospital, of which the hardest part was not being able to compose. It healed badly and he walked with a stick for the rest of his life. In a twist of fate, the same night as the accident, the greengrocer was murdered by a jealous husband who found him ‘in flagrante’ with his wife, leaving Elvira free for them to get married and legitimising young Antonio However, Elvira changed after the accident and the easy camaraderie of the Club della Bohème cooled and the friends drifted away. The Act 3 Quartet from ‘La Bohème’ captured the mood perfectly.
Puccini put his pain into his music. Elvira seemed to take a dislike to pretty young Doria Manfredi, finding fault with her for no obvious reason, especially when finding her alone with Puccini. Matters came to a head when Elvira dragged Doria in front of Puccini, accusing them of an affair, dismissing their denials. The melody of a standalone aria, later to find its way into ‘La Rondine’, came to him at this time and the celebrated soprano Rosa Raisa (Italian soprano, Federica Raja) arrives to try it out, which she does beautifully and so seductively that Elvira’s accusations seem all the more credible. When Doria did not show up for work for a few days, it transpired that she had taken poison from which she died in agony, leaving a note blaming her suicide on the humiliation she had suffered at the hands of Elvira. The coroner reported that she had died a virgin. Elvira was charged with slander and sentenced to three months. Even though Puccini paid the Manfredi family off, Elvira moved to Milan with their son Antonio. Young singer Blake Thomas, in the role of Antonio, sang a short aria seated on the rug with a rocking horse, before taken away by Elvira. Puccini was left alone. He sings unaccompanied an excerpt from ‘E lucevan le stelle’, Cavaradossi’s aria as he waits for his execution in Act 3 of ‘Tosca’. He considered selling the Villa and moving back to Lucca. Career and marriage were forfeit to tragedy. If he could only find one more story to tell …
‘Turandot’ was his salvation, but there was something missing from the original story. He created the role of Liù, the steadfast slavegirl who sacrifices herself for the ‘unknown’ Prince.(Calaf), whom she secretly loves, as a memorial to Doria Manfredi, the innocent girl who killed herself rather than suffer calumny at the hands of a jealous wife. Liù’s Act 1 aria, ‘Signore, ascolta!’ is one of a handful of pieces that have always made me cry, even without knowing the back story. Isabel Garcia Araujo (in character as both Doria and Liù) performed it beautifully and yes, I wept. Fans of the ‘Inspector Morse’ TV series based on Colin Dexter’s books may recall the episode set in Vicenze, ‘Death of the Self’, in which Frances Barber plays a diva, Nichole Burgess. At the end in Verona’s theatre, she sings this aria (actually sung by Janis Kelly) and Morse weeps. I share with Morse. For this alone (and there was so much more) I can forgive the greengrocer Scarpia nonsense. Rosa Raisa, by the way, premiered the eponymous role of Turandot. As a ‘big finale’ Liam Forrest (who had played the ‘young Puccini’, performed ‘Nessun dorma’. Quality.
The ‘big finale’ was not the end. Elvira and Puccini were reconciled and she returned to the Villa with young Antonio. The final number, as the show had opened, was ‘O mio babbino caro’ from ‘Gianni Schicchi’, sung by Iúnó Connolly in-role as Elvira, with Puccini sitting on the chair in his study and Antonio (Blake Thomas) on the rug.
“Entertaining, informative and moving, almost entirely for the right reasons”, would be my final verdict on this show. And henceforth there will be a new dimension to my tears when I hear ‘Signore, ascolta!’.
Photo credit: Pádraig Grant