Italy slowly rebooted itself in May after the Coronavirus emergency and long months of lockdown. Unfortunately, most live shows were cancelled and cinemas and theatres remained closed in the weeks that followed the first reopening phase. Yet some companies started reorganising open air events and putting together alternative summer calendars. Two days ago, for example, a very peculiar adaptation of Puccini's opera buffa "Gianni Schicchi" was staged at the Cittadella del Carnevale, in Viareggio. Organised as part of the Puccini Festival, the opera had to follow all the new social distancing regulations so the number of seats was reduced to allow more space between members of the audience who also had to sanitise their hands before taking their seats and had to wear a face mask. Rules also applied to the performers on stage who sang wearing surgical masks (only in some cases when they had to hit higher notes, they were allowed to temporarily remove the protective devices).
The shadow of Coronavirus also extended to the actual staging of the opera: director Valentina Carrasco opted indeed to transport the story from 1299 to our times, and relocate the vicissitudes of Gianni Schicchi in a contemporary Florence, deserted because of lockdown.
Puccini took inspiration for the opera from Dante's Inferno, Gianni Schicchi de' Cavalcanti was indeed a 13th-century Italian knight, a Florentine historical figure mentioned in Canto XXX, in which Dante visits the Circle of Impersonators. Schicchi was confined there after impersonating Buoso Donati and making his will highly favorable to himself.
In Carrasco's version of "Gianni Schicchi", with John Axerold conducting the orchestra, Buoso Donati dies of Coronavirus and his greedy relatives arrive to pretend to mourn his passing, but in reality to share his possessions (and here the story highlighted the grotesque selfishness and greed of human beings even during a global pandemic...).
None of the characters donned grand costumes or wonderful accessories, but very ordinary modern clothes. Yet this normality was reinterpreted in a highly apocalyptic key via high vis gear, PPE, gloves and surgical masks (sets and costumes were by Mauro Tinti). The furniture and objects on stage were also covered in plastic and the gestures of the characters - frequently washing their hands and using antibacterial hand sanitiser - pointed at the Coronavirus regulations.
Puccini and librettist Giovacchino Forzano borrowed heavily from the commedia dell'arte tradition for this work and while Schicchi himself in this opera is often compared to Harlequin, his daughter Lauretta calls to mind Columbina.
Carrasco preserved some of the elements of the commedia dell'arte, reinterpreting them: one performer in a civil defense suit, for example, often reminded the others of keeping social distancing and separated lovers Lauretta and Rinuccio when they tried to kiss.
As the story developed, images were projected on a screen behind the performers, they showed the Italian PM Giuseppe Conte (appearing as Dante Alighieri...) and the presidents of those regions (Attilio Fontana in Lombardy and Vincenzo De Luca in Campania) who became well-known faces during the months of lockdown for their press conferences and social media messages inviting people to stay at home and wear masks outside (De Luca became a bit of a hit on social media for his threats to those people who didn't respect the regulations, including sending the authorities with flame throwers to those ones who broke the rules and organised celebrations such as graduation parties).
Puccini conceived "Gianni Schicchi" as a blend of sentiment and opera buffa, and Carrasco also followed this interpretation. While the opera was surreal and comical, there was a deeply tragic moment with the aria "O mio babbino caro" (Oh, my dear papa) dedicated to all the Coronavirus victims and in particular to all those elederly people who died alone in hospitals and care homes.
This staging of the opera wasn't certainly a parody or a way to exploit Coronavirus and its victims, but it was a representation of a moment that has deeply socked and shaken us all and that will tragically go down in history. You can bet there will be other operas that will be reinvented and readapted in the time of Covid-19, but this one for the time being managed to capture a terrible moment for Italy and the rest of the world and to do so in an accessible and surreally serious way.
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