Acting
Il tabarro is a tale of jealousy and murder between Michele, his young wife Giorgetta and her lover Luigi, set aboard a barge on the Seine. Suor Angelica tells the story of the nun Angelica’s familial loss, sacrifice and suicide. Gianni Schicchi is an opera full of trickery, greed and romance as a family dispute breaks out over a missing will. The Olivier-nominated Royal Opera production featuring a trio of one-act Puccini operas was first performed together on the same bill at Covent Garden in September 2011, and was acclaimed by the Telegraph as "an operatic treat... three hours of gorgeous music that allows big voices to let emotion rip" and by the Evening Standard as "a triumphant vindication of the social awareness and dramatic power of Puccini's triptych". The trio of operas offers a panorama of emotions, with the dark and foreboding Il tabarro and comic Gianni Schicchi bookending a heart-wrenching Suor Angelica.
Two Queens. One Catholic and Scottish, one Protestant and English. One in prison at the other’s behest. A man between them balancing loyalty and love. A cry of ‘Vile bastard’ is the impassioned insult that leads one to the scaffold. The insult was so potent that the first performance of Donizetti’s lyrical tragedy was cancelled at the last minute in Naples through royal intervention. A toned-down revision went awry at la Scala the following year when the great Maria Malibran chose to sing the original words. More than a century would pass before Maria Stuarda would finally make its way into the operatic mainstream. For the central female roles, Irish National Opera has called on two Irish singers with glittering international careers: mezzo-soprano, Tara Erraught and soprano, Anna Devin. Tom Creed’s new production promises timely insights into what happens when larger imperial states encroach on their smaller neighbours and when geopolitics is clouded by emotions.
