PCC Opera presents "Dido and Aeneas" and "Gianni Schicchi"

PCC Opera presents Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi

Directed by Dr. Anthony Moreno

Select from five performances: Thursday, April 2, Friday, April 3, Saturday, April 4 (Matinee and Evening), Tuesday, April 7.

All performances in Sexson Auditorium (C 230).

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Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell -

Tragic opera in three acts. (1689 or earlier)

Libretto by Nahum Tate, after his play Brutus of Alba and Virgil’s Aeneid.

First performance at Josias Priest’s school in Chelsea, London, before December 1689, with a possible earlier performance as a court masque (in one act).

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Characters:

Dido, Queen of Carthage;

Aeneas, a Trojan prince;

Belinda, Dido’s confidante;

Sorceress;

Spirit, in the form of Mercury;

Sailor;

Synopsis -

Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage, entertains the Trojan prince Aeneas, shipwrecked on his way to Italy, where he will found a new Troy. Dido and Aeneas are in love. Witches plot Dido’s destruction and the Sorceress conjures a storm, to break out when the royal couple are hunting, and the impersonation of Mercury by one of her coven. The storm duly breaks and the courtiers hasten back to town, while the false Mercury tells Aeneas he must leave Dido and sail for Italy. Aeneas and his sailors prepare to leave, to the delight of the witches. Aeneas parts from Dido, who kills herself once he has gone, her death lamented by mourning cupids.

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It has been plausibly suggested that Purcell’s short opera Dido and Aeneas was originally designed as a court masque, and possible topical political allusions have been proposed, notably in the light of the future James II’s Catholicism, seen to deflect him from his duty as a future king, a hypothetical intrigue that casts the Jesuits as witches. The work owes something to John Blow’s Venus and Adonis of 1683. Most famous of all elements in the opera is Dido’s lament, "When I am laid in earth", with its descending ground bass borrowed from current Venetian practice.

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Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini -

Opera in one act. (1918)

Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, after an episode in Dante’s Inferno.

First performance at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on 14th December 1918.

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Characters:

Gianni Schicchi;

Lauretta, his daughter;

Zita (La Vecchia), cousin of Buoso Donati;

Rinuccio, her nephew;

Gherardo, Buoso Donati’s nephew;

Nella, his wife;

Gherardino, their son;

Betto di Signa, Buoso Donati’s brother-in-law;

Simone, Buoso Donati’s cousin;

Marco, his son;

La Ciesca, Marco’s wife;

Maestro Spinelloccio, doctor;

Ser Amantio di Nicolao, lawyer;

Pinellino, cobbler;

Guccio, painter;

Synopsis -

Buoso Donati’s relations are anxious about the property he may have left them in his will, which they search for and find, revealing that, as they had feared, Buoso Donati had left everything to a monastery. Rinuccio, who hopes to marry Lauretta, daughter of Gianni Schicchi, suggests that the latter should be called, for whatever help he can give. After due consideration, he proposes taking the place of the dead man, convincing a doctor and a lawyer, who draws up a new will, making smaller bequests to the family, but leaving the major properties to himself, threatening the family with legal penalties if they reveal anything, since they have all been party to the fraud. Rinuccio is now free to marry Lauretta.

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Best known of all excerpts from Gianni Schicchi is Lauretta’s plea to her father for help, "O mio babbino caro" (O dear father), too often taken completely out of its satirical context. Gianni Schicchi forms part of the trilogy Il trittico (The Triptych), with Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) and Il tabarro (The Cloak).

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This performance is presented to satisfy a portion of the requirements for Opera Production (MUSC 076), Technical Theater (THRT 12A), Theater Rehearsal and Performance (THRT 029), Stage Techniques (THRT 030), and/or Fundamentals of Stage Lighting (THRT 041).

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