opera paper

Briella Zoino

Opera Paper

9/21/17

Gianni Schicchi

Gianni Schicchi is a comic, three-one act opera by Giacomo Puccini. It first was performed on December 14, 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Gianni Schicchi takes place in 13th century Florence. It was inspired by an event that took place in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Buoso Donati, a deceased aristocrat, has his family standing all around his dead body in the first scene. Everyone in the family wants his fortune now that he has passed away and the whole family is like vultures. Meanwhile, Rinuccio, the son of Buoso’s cousin, Zita asks for permission to marry Lauretta who is the daughter of Gianni Schicchi. She tells him that he can marry whoever he wants if he ends up getting Buoso’s money that he left behind.  The brother-in-law, Betto, heard that Buoso left his whole fortune to a monastery. A monastery is a building for religious purposes, in this case, it would be catholic. The whole family scrambles to see if this rumor is true that Betto has heard and sadly, the rumour is true. After a while, Gianni Schicchi and Lauretta arrive into the scene and they are not very liked in the family. They do not get treated right because they are peasants. Rinuccio thinks that Schicchi can help change Buoso’s will before the doctor comes and sees that he is dead, which in my opinion is very dishonorable, disgusting, and weird for a family to do. Lauretta begs her father by singing “O mio babbino caro”. She explains how she loves Rinuccio and basically guilts her father into getting what she wants because she threatens her own death if he denies her and her families request and finally her father gives in.

Gianni makes sure that the whole family is on board with the plan, even though he himself is still not fully convinced,  and they all hide poor Buoso’s body in the closet where the doctor can’t find his body and Gianni has paperwork claiming that Buoso is still alive. Gianni is not happy that the family convinced him to trick the doctor. As he is very angry and disgusted, he starts to change Buoso’s will. The family starts requesting everything that they want after the doctor leaves. When Gianni writes what he wants from Buoso, he says he wants the house, the mills, and the mule. The family is very angry with Gianni and think that it is very unfair to the rest of the family. But, they are the ones that got Gianni on board in the first place and could not really say anything. Also, after Gianni wrote down what he wanted, it was basically set in stone and if they said anything to the authorities, they would get their hands chopped off for committing a crime and lying.

The whole family turns against Gianni and are very angry with him. I think that the family has no right to be angry because they all took something from Buoso and took his money. Gianni was just smart about it and took what was not money, but what was Buoso’s whole life, basically. Plus, the family had to really convince him to be in on the plan. I mean, Lauretta sings a whole song about how if he didn’t help them, she would kill herself. Finally, Gianni has had enough and he throws the family out of Buoso’s house, which is now his house. The whole family leaves besides Rinuccio and Lauretta because Gianni approved of their marriage and they are both on Gianni’s side.

I believe it is important that this opera is still talked about today because it shows just how important family is. It also shows the dark actions that bonding and family can make a person do just to please the ones they love. I truly believe Buoso thought that the family did not need any of his belongings or money, that is why he did not leave them any and wanted to send it all to a monastery. But, because the family was greedy and thought that they deserved something, they went behind a dead man’s back just to please themselves. I truly believe Gianni should have never went along with the family and should have left because their plan depended on him. If Gianni had not listened to the family, there would still be respect towards Buoso and Gianni could have walked away with some dignity, instead of raking in the reward all for himself and throwing out his family when they turned on him. Today, the song  “O mio babbino caro” that Lauretta sings in the opera is still very popular. It was a very manipulative song and maybe people today do not realize just how evil the request that is sung about, but the fact that a song still holds the same impact and persuading feeling in today’s society, proves just how powerful that song really was even back then in 1918.

Technology was involved in this opera with the lighting, the mics, and the stage props. The version of the opera that I watched was a 2016 remake which was an hour long. Due to the fact that the opera is a one act opera, there is not much hanging of props, the changing and emotion really just come from the actors. Also, the orchestra is right at the edge of the stage, so there is not much room to do a lot with changing of the stages directions or something with fire or water if they really wanted to. The lighting in the play, to me, was very well planned out. The audience is really focused on the actual play, rather than looking at the orchestra at the foot of the stage. I really loved the live music while the play was going on. The timing between the orchestra and the actors really had to be perfect or else the opera would not be balanced and perfect. So, I really did appreciate the use of live instruments. Also, I believe the live music really did bring a level of class to the show, despite the horrible actions being done to poop Buoso’s body going on in the play itself. If I was the director I would have conducted the opera just as they have. Even though it was only my first time watching the opera, I understood it and loved the way the actors expressed their emotions.

If I were to make this opera into a video game, I would make the main character in the game Gianni. Gianni would have to first fight off his whole family one-by-one as he refuses to go along with the plan to change Buoso’s will. Unfortunately, the game does not let you beat the family members, but the game allows you to have two family members on your side. Those two family members would be Rinuccio and Lauretta because Gianni approves of their marriage. Because Gianni did not fend off his families wishes though, he would become very tiny in the game, to represent how the family manipulated him and belittled him in the opera to go along with the plan. Gianni would have to fight a giant version of the dead zombie, Buoso, and the family would be on the sidelines putting pressure on Gianni to defeat the zombie of Buoso. After Gianni defeats Buoso’s zombie in the game, Gianni is the one that becomes giant-like and kicks the family out of the game at the end. If the video game player defeats Buoso’s zombie and kicks out the family, he has won the game and get’s to keep zombie Buoso’s house, the mills, and the mule while Rinuccio and Lauretta hangout with him.