Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the third and final part of Il trittico —three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together. The plot is based on an actual incident that took place in 13th century Florence. The score combines elements of PuCCini’s modern style of harmonic dissonance with lyrical passages reminiscent of Rossini.
About Gianni Schicchi in brief
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. It is the third and final part of Il trittico —three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together. The aria “O mio babbino caro” is one of Puccino’s best known, and one of the most popular arias in opera. The plot is based on an actual incident that took place in 13th century Florence. The score combines elements of PuCCini’s modern style of harmonic dissonance with lyrical passages reminiscent of Rossini, and it has been praised for its inventiveness and imagination. It has since become the most-performed part of the triptych and has been widely recorded. It continues to be performed with one or both of the other trittICO operas, but it is now more frequently staged either alone or with short operas by other composers. The opera was premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in December 1918, and became an immediate hit, whereas the other two operas were received with less enthusiasm. It was broadly repeated at the Rome and London premieres and led to commercial pressures to abandon the less successful elements. According to Burton Fisher, Puccano borrowed heavily from the commedia dell’arte tradition in Gianni Schiocchi. The character Gianni de’ Cavalcanti was a 13th-century Italian knight, a Florentine historical figure mentioned by Dante in the Inferno, Canto XXX.
In that canto, Dante visits the Circle of Impersonators and sees a man savagely attacking another: he is told that the attacker isSchicchi, condemned to Hell for impersonating Buoso Donati and making his will highly favorable to Schic Chi. Both Schicchi and Buoso donati were historical characters. Dante’s verses, and the opera, are based on a real incident that happened in Florence in the 14th century. In this version, Buoso wishes to make a will, but is put off doing so by his son, Simone. Once it is too late, Simone fears that Buoso, before his illness, may have made a will unfavourable to him. Simone calls on SchicCHi for advice, and Schicchy has the idea of impersonating him and making a new will. He leaves a considerable sum to his son and his mule to himself, and makes the bequests conditional on Simone’s distributing the estate within fifteen days, otherwise everything will go to charity. The Moor’s relatives are drawn from Columbina, whose death scares the captain and his daughter Lauretta, whose romance is nearly foiled by the poverty-stricken relatives, while Simone is drawn from Pantalina. In one, three noble Florentines, who have died and gone to Hell, ask Dante for their home, and he tells them that the city is now dominated by the nveau riche.
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This page is based on the article Gianni Schicchi published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
