“Il Trittico” in Salzburg: Comedy culture comes first
At the end of the quay, where the barges dock, it is not the silhouette of Paris, the city of lights, that lures us this time. Instead there is a wardrobe. A person is crouching on it, girl or woman or child, it’s not even possible to tell with an old-fashioned opera viewer. In any case, this figure is in a black robe. Make celebratory faxes, then climb down and mingle with the people. Why?
Is it the ship ghost? One of the norns? Fate? Only Christof Loy and his stage designer Étienne Pluss can know that. They came up with this extra character for their production of “Il Tabarro”, part of Giacomo Puccini’s “Il Trittico”. The audience at the Salzburg Festival is, of course, used to grief. It has accumulated experience with directing ideas and doesn’t give a damn about surreal symbolism as long as it doesn’t get too naked. In addition, it is otherwise downright picturesque and faithful to the work on the wide screen stage of the big house.
The dim whip lamps on the desolate quay; old Michele’s apple boat; the red pumps of his wife Georgette, who prefers to go barefoot and dreams of a settled life in the country; the muscular dockworkers who help unload the cargo and who the Padrona treats to a bottle of red wine at the end of the day; the gossip girl La Frugola, who joins them; the barrel organ man who plays the dance with badly slipped sounds. All of this corresponds to the realism ideal of a verismo opera right up to the kitsch border. The thing on the closet, meanwhile, is one of the last twitches of a fashion that has outlived itself.
Asmik Grigorian as the fleet-footed Georgette
“Il Tabarro” is an opera that, exceptionally, plays in the present, albeit in Puccini’s, not ours. It may be that this is the reason why Loy’s pictures appear as if they were painted in their historicizing milieu loyalty, although they are constantly in motion. This definitely suits Puccini’s orchestral language, rich in leitmotifs, with its overwhelming potential; in the middle of the pieces you suddenly listen with completely new ears. The leadership also meticulously savors all the details, and the singer figures fit into this concept of a new fidelity to the work with bliss. First and foremost: Asmik Grigorian, Salzburg’s current crowd favorite.
She is a famous light-footed georgette. In general, this singer-actress with the big, n voice can slip into any skin, as if it were her own. In this “Trittico” production, you cover up all three of the female lead roles. The men around her also act with passion. When has one ever seen such a cinematically brutal murder on the opera stage as that of the jealous baritone Michele (Roman Burdenko) on his wife’s tenor lover (Joshua Guerrero)? Luigi fights for his life, the orchestra rears up and screams. The scene, which until then had been cluttered with people, furniture, boxes and loads, has long since emptied itself. Night fog descended, a hopeless darkness that had long been announced in the music. Right from the start, still in the light, the wrong sevenths of the barrel organ knew things weren’t going well.
“Il Tabarro” was the first of three one-act plays that Giacomo Puccini conceived for “Il Trittico” towards the end of the First World War. It should open the triptych of human sins, in the sense of increasing empathy. First, perhaps the most common, but also the most heinous: murder planned in cold blood out of jealousy. The second is the tragedy of the nun “Suor Angelica”: Suicide as a way out of misery through no fault of one’s own. Then, at the end, the most trivial: the comedy about the ingenious crook “Gianni Schicki”. After that, greed is also a mortal sin.
It rains punch lines
This keystone of the “Trittico” triptych is often listed as a single piece; unlike the other two, it is known and loved. Firstly, because there are only punch lines in there. Second, because it presents the hottest request concert hits. With “Firenze è come un albero fiorito” a wind choir-armed declaration of love to the splendor of the city of Florence, sung by bel canto tenor Rinuccio (Alexey Neklyudov), who loves Lauretta. And with “O mio babbino caro”, the arioso of Lauretta (cunningly innocent: Grigorian), who wants to marry Rinuccio at all costs, even if her father enters the hell for inheritance hunters described by Dante. At the end, Schicchi steps up to the ramp, he asks in dry words, sweetly supported by violin and clarinet, for mitigating circumstances.
In “Suor Angelica” female voices, church tones and remote choirs dominate. A nun (highly dramatic: Grigorian) atones in the convent for the disgrace she brought on her family. She has not seen her child, whom she gave birth to out of wedlock, for seven years. The only arguable highlight of the elegy: the visit of the evil aunt (clangingly imperious: Karita Mattila). Her child, Angelica learns, has long been dead. Only a miracle from Mary can help here.
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All three one-act plays play in the same closed, singer-friendly stage space, each new and beautifully furnished. All singers can absolutely rely on Franz Welser-Möst, who fulfills one heavenly perfect Puccini dream after the other with the Vienna Philharmonic in the Graben – sweet and bitter. Why the director once again rearranged the order of the three one-act plays remains his secret.
The evening also begins in Salzburg, where “Il Trittico” has never been shown before, with the comedy. It ends in tragedy. Light as a feather and clear at the beginning, sentimentally drowsy at the end: That only makes sense if you’re really looking for escapism. Unless you want to tie in with the mass appeal of the “Sissi” films, in which the martyrdom of Romy Schneider dissolved into goodwill with the original Italian battle cry “Viva la mamma”. When Angelica, after a triumphant final song, swallows poison and, already half dead, gets on her knees to embrace her child, the audience is moved to tears and delighted. It applauds while standing.