Gianni Schicchi

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 his will highly favorable to Schicchi.[1]

The plot used in the opera derives from an 1866 edition of The Divine Comedy by philologist Pietro Fanfani, which contained an appendix with a commentary attributed to an anonymous Florentine of the 14th century. In this version, Buoso wishes to make a will, but is put off doing so by his son, Simone. Once it is too late, Simone fears that Buoso, before his illness, may have made a will unfavourable to him. Simone calls on Schicchi for advice, and Schicchi has the idea of impersonating Buoso and making a new will. Simone promises Schicchi he will be well rewarded, but Schicchi takes no chances, "leaving" a considerable sum and Buoso's mule to himself (though most goes to Simone), and makes the bequests conditional on Simone's distributing the estate within fifteen days, otherwise everything will go to charity.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

According to Burton Fisher, Puccini and Forzano borrowed heavily from the commedia dell'arte tradition in Gianni Schicchi. 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.[2] Doctor Spinelloccio recalls the classic doctor from the commedia dell'arte, Balanzone, even to his Bolognese origin.[4] The Moor whose death momentarily scares the relatives, and his captain, are stock characters from commedia dell'arte.[5]

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 "Avete torto" ("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 "O mio babbino caro" ("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.

The relatives listen to the reading of the will. From the original Metropolitan Opera production.

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 "Si corre dal notaio" ("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 "Spogliati, bambolino" ("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: exile from Florence together with the loss of a hand.

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, "Lauretta mia", 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."

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 Cavalleria rusticana.[7] With Tosca 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.[8]

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.[9] 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." [10] Puccini pursued neither project, as Giacosa's illness led to his death in September 1906.[11]

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 La fanciulla del West,[12] although he did not wholly abandon the idea of a multiple-opera evening.[13] 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.[14] By November 1916 Puccini had completed the "tragic" element, which became Il tabarro, but he still lacked ideas for the other two works.[15] He considered staging Il tabarro in combination with his own early work Le Villi, or with other two-act operas which might be used to round out the evening's entertainment.[16] Finally, librettist Giovacchino Forzano presented the composer with two works of his own, which became Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.[15] The latter would be Puccini's first setting of a comic text; although his earlier operas, for example La bohème, contain comic episodes, these are merely ancillary to the drama to provide contrast.[17]

Forzano wrote to Tito Ricordi, Giulio's son, on 3 March 1917:

I sent the libretto of Suor Angelica 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 Gianni Schicchi. You know the Maestro's opinion of this subject, which is rich in possibilities and whose comic nature is quite out of the ordinary.[18]

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 Suor Angelica. The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to Gianni Schicchi, 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,[19] and Puccini continued to refine and orchestrate it through the summer of 1918.[20]

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.[21] Gianni Schicchi proved to be the last opera completed by Puccini.[22]

Giuseppe Verdi said of Puccini, early in the latter's career, that "the symphonic element dominates in him",[53] and Gianni Schicchi has been compared by later analysts to that of the final presto movement of a three-movement symphony.[54] With the fast-moving pace of the work, the set pieces are given a simpler melodic structure than those in the other two parts of the triptych.[55] On stage, with the commedia dell'arte 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",[56] with simultaneous clashing chords suggesting that "Puccini was beginning to think in bi-tonal terms".[57] Alongside these dissonant passages are others which opera scholar Julian Budden calls "bland, schoolroom diatonism".[58]

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",[59] which quickly transforms into a mock-solemn dirge depicting the hypocritical grief of the Donati relatives.[60] 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".[61] Other principal motifs include the theme associated with the lovers Rinuccio and Lauretta, introduced in Rinuccio's first solo "Salvati! Salvati!", 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,[60] and it is heard again as Schicchi knocks on the door before his first appearance. The best-known theme in the opera, that associated with Lauretta, is introduced in the second part of Rinuccio's aria "Avete torto". The theme is briefly played on clarinet and violin as Lauretta enters with Schicchi, before its full expression in "O mio babbino caro".[60]

Budden dismisses the view that Lauretta's aria, at the midpoint of the opera, was a concession to popular taste; rather, "its position at the turning point of the action is precisely calculated to provide a welcome moment of lyrical repose".[58] Andrew Davis, in his book on Puccini's late style, notes that Lauretta's aria and the two interruptions by the young lovers ("Addio, speranza bella") as Schicchi mulls over the will, constitute interruptions in the Romantic style, delivered during a lengthy sequence of non-Romantic music.[62] 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.[63]

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."[64] Greenfield remarks on the score's inventiveness, imagination and flawless timing.[65] Several critics have likened Gianni Schicchi to Verdi's Falstaff, as both are masterpieces of operatic comedy from composers more usually associated with tragedy.[58][65] Both composers took the conventions of comic opera into consideration, choosing a baritone for the principal role, setting the tenor-soprano love story against family opposition to the marriage, and constructing a hoax that permits the happy ending.[66] Charles Osborne cites in particular the trio for three female voices, "Spogliati, bambolino", 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.[60]

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 "O mio babbino caro", the best-known of the solos, is separable from its context and can be sung as a concert piece.[54][58]

Despite its popularity as a stage work, Gianni Schicchi was not available as a recording until after the Second World War, a neglect described by a Gramophone reviewer as "extraordinary".[67] One of the earliest recordings, a Turin Radio 1950 broadcast performance conducted by Alfredo Simonetto, 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".[68] 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.[69] Among more recent recordings, that of the complete Trittico with the London Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Pappano (1998) has been generally recommended.[69][70] There are numerous video recordings now available.[71]

American composer Michael Ching wrote a one-act English-language sequel, Buoso's Ghost,[72] which had its first full staging with the Pittsburgh Opera in 1996,[73][74] and its official premiere at Opera Memphis in 1997.[75][76] Starting where Gianni Schicchi ends, the new opera, with a libretto by the composer, opens with Schicchi's final chords and carries the plot forward by following the sinister dealings of Buoso Donati's family, who apparently had poisoned Buoso, and the continued machinations of Schicchi, who tries to exploit this growing suspicion on his part.[76][77][78] Opera News noted that Ching uses "a more modern musical mode, yet avoiding excessive atonality. The score subtly introduces brief tongue-in-cheek quotations from other works, ranging from Mozart to Sondheim, plus one unmistakable interjection of Shostakovich."[79] It has been performed throughout the U.S., paired with Gianni Schicchi.[80]

• Ashbrook, William (1985). The Operas of Puccini. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9309-9. tosca cast bells.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gianni Schicchi.

• Gianni Schicchi: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• 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