2002 Season - Genesius Guild

Puccini: "Gianni Schicchi"

This one-act opera by Giacomo Puccini is the final third of his operatic trilogy, "Il Trittico." It is the concluding comedy, follows two works that end in murder ("Il Tabaro") and suicide (Suor Angelica").

The wealthy patriarch Buoso Donati dies as his family gathers, expressing their grief at his loss, but each secretly hoping to benefit from his will. One of them says he has heard a rumor that the will has been changed, leaving all of Donati’s wealth and holdings to the monks at Santa Reparata. After a frantic search, the will is discovered and the rumor is found to be a fact.

Young Rinuccio, in love with Lauretta, the daughter of the clever peasant, Gianni Schicchi, sends for his putative father-in-law, hoping he will find a way out of the family’s dilemma. The rest of the family is outraged. Schicchi agrees to help the ungrateful relatives only after his daughter pleads with him in the opera’s best-known aria, "O mio babbino caro."

Schicchi manages to save the day, but in doing so, arranges a bequest for himself to benefit the young lovers. There is nothing the relatives can do to stop him, so the opera ends with the monkss losing their fortune and the relatives each getting a part of Don Buoso’s inheritance - but not the mill, mule, and house they all coveted.

This production is by "Opera At Augustana."