Work with a change of place – Newspaper Kommersant No. 151 (7352) dated 08/19/2022

The famous director Christoph Loy staged Giacomo Puccini’s Triptych in Salzburg, a cycle of three one-act operas (Gianni Schicchi, The Cloak, Sister Angelica), conceived by the composer as integral parts of one theatrical evening. The sequence of these parts, however, is shockingly changed against the author’s intention, and the main female parts in all three operas are sung by the same performer – soprano Hasmik Grigoryan, who was elevated to the rank of superstar by the Salzburg Festival. The implementation of an intriguing idea (among other things, the Triptych had never been performed in Salzburg before) was observed by Sergey Hodnev.

The world was barely recovering from the Great War when Puccini premiered his Triptych in the autumn of 1918, and at a safe distance from European diplomatic and revolutionary convulsions, on the stage of the old New York Metropolitan. Puccini’s “triad” was accepted, although over the past hundred years a somewhat ambiguous place has been assigned to it. These are not super-repertory Tosca and not Turandot, but also not a Girl from the West, and even more so not some kind of Swallow; from concert hits, the general public knows, first of all, Gianni Schicchi (aria “Il mio babbino caro”), secondly, “Sister Angelica” (aria “Senza mamma, o bimbo”), but more often operas are still not performed by all triad, and separately – or, as in our Mariinsky Theater, a doublet (“Gianni Schicchi” plus “Sister Angelica”).

Nevertheless, Puccini himself insisted that all three operas – even if they were not related to each other in terms of plot – should be performed together. Here’s the thing: firstly, this is a one-act opera for the 18th and 19th centuries, some kind of “Mistress-Servant” is just an intermission appendix to a large “serious” opus, and for composers of verism this is already a valuable work in its own right. , a full-fledged clot of passions, and at the same time you should not mount it end-to-end with anything. Secondly, here the tripartiteness is not without reason: Puccini hatched the idea of ​​an operatic analogue of the Divine Comedy with its three canticles.

Things did not come to a direct adaptation, but still it is often thought that the sequence of the Triptych given in 1918 responds precisely to Dante. First – “The Cloak”, an unconditionally verist gloomy sketch with a love triangle and crime passionel (the captain of a cargo barge kills his adulterous wife) against the backdrop of the gloomy life of the Parisian lower classes: like “Hell”. Then – “Sister Angelica”, the story of an involuntary nun, imprisoned by noble relatives in a monastery to atone for a criminal love affair; upon learning that her little son is dead, she lays hands on herself, but in her deathbed vision, the all-forgiving Mother of God and her own child appear to her: there is a catharsis, that is, after all, “purification”, a compositional answer to “Purgatory”. The strangest thing about Gianni Schicchi is that there is no mention of the scholastic heights of Dante’s Paradise, just a Renaissance picaresque novel about a cunning man who helped the relatives of a Florentine rich man forge his will and pocketed a tasty share of the inheritance at the same time. But, although death determines the stage events here, too, the finale is cloudless, and the optimistic anthem in honor of the renaissance Florence with its peaceful accomplishments, probably in the autumn of 1918, really looked like a promise of paradise to the most respected public.

At the current Salzburg Festival, it was the Divine Comedy (first of all, Hell, but it is no stranger to spotlights) that turned out to be an important cross-cutting theme, so the appearance of the Triptych in the program, on the one hand, is expected. On the other hand, this is, surprisingly, a breakthrough: under Gerard Mortier, Puccini was not very loved at the festival, and even now it is performed with a touch of apologetic effort. However, the sequence has been changed. “Hell” is “Gianni Schicchi” – since this character really appears among the inhabitants of Dante’s hell; “Purgatory” is “Cloak”, but “paradise” is “Sister Angelica” crowned with mystical ecstasy. Director Christoph Loy justified the need for these rearrangements so appetizingly that hopes arose: well, how will he try to make Triptych – which, it seems, no one has ever taken – a live trilogy with at least hints of through action? Moreover, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Georgette in Cloak, and the title heroine in Sister Angelica were supposed to be sung by the same Hasmik Grigoryan.

No, I didn’t try. Puccini’s Triptych, despite radical intervention, still falls apart into separate parts, the connection of which with each other seems arbitrary. Except for the general touch of midcentury modern, as the dealers in old good put it, which cannot be passed off either as antiques or as “the latest peep”. “Gianni Schicchi” turns out to be a comic cartoon about a greedy family from the Italian petty bourgeoisie, who, mourning their patriarch, whimpers not just like that, but through chewed pasta. The “Cloak” of the Russian opera audience will surprise you with its similarity to some provincial production by Alexander Titel like “Carmen” or “Godunov” – the same skillful, but empty symbolism, only dissolved in the vast space of the Grand Festival Hall. Even the barge, around which the troubles of the relationship between Captain Michele and his young wife are lined up, is already built on the stage in full size (the scenery of Etienne Plus), and the suffering of the main characters is complemented by the game of mimams – how can Paris be without writhing mimes, without berets and without wine decanters. Finally, in “Sister Angelica” the same huge hall space of the scenery turns into a monastery courtyard, where quite modern nuns sympathize with the ill-fated victim of family ostracism (they stained the family coat of arms with fornication).

Maestro Franz Welser-Möst, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, is not exactly constrained by this apologetic role – Puccini sounds not only colorful and rich, but analytical, like a great modernist author. But for old-fashioned singing successes in the sense of personal vocal charm, there is still plenty of space in the performance. In Gianni Schicchi, the Russian tenor Alexei Neklyudov (Rinuccio) with his light timbre and the Georgian baritone Misha Kiria, unexpectedly dashing for the role of an elderly rogue, win. In The Cloak, the thick and intense low baritone of the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Roman Burdenko (Michele) nevertheless pushes into the background the dozens of tenor misfortunes of the ill-fated lover Luigi (the Mexican Joshua Guerrero). In Sister Angelika, the longtime star Karita Mattila stood out from the excellent ladies’ ensemble in the role of Aunt Princess – but unsuccessfully: despite the director’s efforts, her “duel” with the main character failed.

And the main achievements of the performance are clearly not in these compact achievements on the basis of the verist theater, but in the works of the main character. Here, the logic that the viewer was presented with immediately becomes clear: in Gianni Schicchi, Hasmik Grigoryan sings his hit number rather angularly (and in addition to a distinct rhythmic Sicilian instead of the sugariness with which singers are usually accompanied in concerts in this aria), in ” Raincoat “she is already a full-fledged heroine. Finally, in “Sister Angelica” she, singing at the limit of her abilities, perfectly carries out the metamorphosis from a timid nun-medicine to a desperate suicidal mother, waiting to meet her son in another world. Great work, just to understand what the festival with its complex agenda will come up with for the artist for the future (and the engagement for next year is surely guaranteed): again verismo or, perhaps, a competition with Bayreuth, where Grigoryan already sang in Dmitry Chernyakov’s performance.