Review of English Touring Opera: Puccini’s Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi at Perth Festival of the Arts

May 24 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THIS year’s Perth Festival of the Arts welcomed a return from English Touring Opera who last Saturday night in Perth Theatre gave their second and final Festival 2011 performance, having presented ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ the night before, to great praise.

To complete their appearance at this year’s Festival they chose to perform two lesser known Puccini operas: ‘Il Tabarro’ (The Cloak) and ‘Gianni Schicchi’. Both come from a set of three one act operas called, ‘Il Trittico’.

Let us start with ‘Il Tabarro’, a tensely dramatic work which centres on a love triangle and ends in a murderous and jealous crime of passion. From the outset Puccini’s extraordinary gift for lyricism was apparent.

The orchestra were superb, with all Puccini’s characteristics present: the lushness of the string writing and the sheer passion were coupled with the ensemble’s perfect intonation, clear textures, carefully graded tone and amazing power when called for. They always provided ample support for the singers without ever drowning them out.

The staging and costumes were deliberately dull and monochrome which did intensify the bleakness and tension of the storyline but did not reflect the passion and torment between the lovers.

The singers were excellent across the board – thoroughly convincing and utterly captivating. The two outstanding performers were Julie Unwin and Charne Rochford, both very powerful, expressive singers and consummate storytellers. They really drew the audience in to the story with a spine-tingling performance.

‘Gianni Schicchi’ could not be more different. It is a hilarious and witty comedic farce about a family fighting over a will made by one of their wealthy relatives.

In total contrast to Il Tabarro, the staging was vibrant and opulent.

The highlight of the night was the aria, ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’, one of the greatest and most performed arias in all of opera. Paula Sides sang this and in so doing followed in the footsteps of greats Maria Callas and Angela Gheorghiu amongst others. With this aria it is easy to be over indulgent and swathe it in vibrato thus destroying the simplicity and lyrical beauty of the melody. However, there was not a trace of this as Paula Sides carried it off with aplomb.

It was wonderful to see such a large and appreciative audience and hear an opera company at the height of their powers perform two operas which deserve to be better known.

Fraser Clark