Il Trittico
Cheryl Barker as Suor Angelica
Photo: Simon Alekna
Each of Puccini's three one-act operas, known collectively as Il Trittico ( The Triptych), deals with desire and pleasure and none of them has much good news for sybarites.
In Il Tabarro ( The Cloak), desire is furtive, snatched quickly between toil and tears. In Suor Angelica, it is punished by peevish relatives and nuns, while in Gianni Schicchi it proves prohibitively expensive.
But this revival of Moffatt Oxenbould's venerable production is at least a tribute to Opera Australia's parsimony: it was first seen in 1973.
Much of Desmond Digby's design - the asymmetrical curve of the silhouetted Parisian riverbank scene of Il Tabarro and the colourful Florentine apartment of Gianni Schicchi - still looks good. Other moments pointed to an enduring operatic dilemma: for all its expense, the artistic effect of its decor is often no more than that of a children's dress-up party (less so, in fact, for seeing children dressed in one's former indiscretions is usually amusing).
When the Madonna enters at the climax of Suor Angelica, looking as though she has had a serious tussle with the plastic tray of a particularly nasty box of chocolates, one is inclined to think that it is time this particular costume was donated to the Mardi Gras or booked in for the next warehouse fire.
However, with this work, listeners don't expect to take much of it too seriously except the singing and this revival has been extremely well cast.
Voice addicts would endure much to hear Cheryl Barker's coyly manipulative "o mio babbino caro" in Gianni Schicchi, though it was actually in Suor Angelica that she delivered the best of three impressive performances, with enough vocal purity and power to atone for a host of sartorial atrocities. In Il Tabarro there was, between her and tenor Dennis O'Neill, a thrilling sense of vocal vividness.
Of Jonathan Summers' two roles, the comic audacity of Schicchi was particularly well pointed. As Michele, in Il Tabarro he was strong but the sound was a little too open.
The conductor Andrea Licata was also most effective in the comic final work. Il Tabarro was a little too drawn out, weakening the "verismo" impact, while in Suor Angelica the intonation curdled around the vibrato in the woodwind and women's voices each going their own separate way.
Elizabeth Campbell was witty and versatile as a bag lady, abbess and grasping relative. Henry Choo captured his usual attractive light tenor sound as Runiccio (in Gianni Schicchi) and Milijana Nikolic had an authentically stern dowager's wobble as the princess. It is an evening of furtive pleasures for voice addicts. Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
