Gianni Schicchi & The Miserly Knight

Two shorter operas directed as a double feature by Annabel Arden at Glyndebourne in 2004.

1. The disc starts with  the Puccini Gianni Schicchi to libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. Stars Alessandro Corbelli, Felicity Palmer, Marie McLaughlin, Ricardo Novaro, Massimo Giordano, Luigi Roni, Olga Schalaewa, Adrian Thompson, Maxim Mikhailov, Sally Matthews, Viacheslav Voynarovskiy, Richard Mosley-Evans, James Gower, Robert Davies, and Matilda Leyser (mute role).

2. Next comes Sergei Rachmaninov's The Miserly Knight to a libretto by the composer. This libretto was taken wholesale with minor changes from a poem by Alexander Pushkin by the same name. Stars Sergei Leiferkus, Richard Berkeley-Steele, Albert Schagidullin, Maxim Mikhailov, Viacheslav Voynarovskiy, and Matilda Leyser (mute role).

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Set design by Vikci Mortimer; costumes by Nicky Gillibrand; lighting by Paule Constable; TV direction by Francesca Kemp. The single disc, released  2008, has 5.1 PCM sound. Grade: A+

"Nadie sabe para quien trabaja" is the Mexican proverb stating that nobody knows who will wind up inheriting his money. This is the theme connecting the two works on this disc.

Gianni Schicchi is a slapstick comedy celebrating the antics of one of the earliest confidence artists in history. It also has one of Puccini's most famous lightening arias. Use this to trick your children into liking opera.

The antidote is Rachmaninov's The Miserly Knight. It's called a bonus on the package, but deserves equal billing. This is the only opera I've heard of where the composer uses the actual text (so I believe) of a masterpiece of world literature for the libretto. (Think of Schubert's courage in daring to write a song to Goethe's beloved Erlkönig ballad.) Alas, to really appreciate The Miserly Knight, you have to learn Russian, not a trivial task.

The Miserly Knight is a late-romantic black-hole piece that permits no melody to escape. It's a psychological autopsy of the sin of greed and its effect on the miserly father, once an feared knight, and his pathetic son, whom we would now describe as "defective personality, passive dependent type." Leiferkus combines herculian singing with acting that would be admired by movies stars. They say the orchestra is the aria, and this can be quite absorbing, even riveting, for the hour it plays. To top it off, the director came up with a special effect that is too good for me to give away now. Stop reading, get this disc, and watch it cold.