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Puccini's "Il Trittico" Pt 2: Suor Angelica's Patricia Racette earns mercy for we women with no man
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Patricia Racette's humbling performance inspires mercy and standing ovation
Patricia Racette earned atonement for all with her heart rendering performance of a young mother torn from her family and baby in Suor Angelica, the second story of Puccini's triptych Il Trittico.
Il Trittico’s second or middle story of the triptych comes bookended between the lusty yearning for excitement and escape of Il Tabarro and the madcap scheming of surviving relatives in Gianni Schicchi. After Suor Angelica I feel dejected by senseless suffering and loss; ready for revenge and the comic relief of seeing hateful relatives get what’s due. Setting the stage, the relatives in Suor Angelica were bereft of any love or compassion for their daughter but to the point of cruelty, driving an innocent young woman to suicide. A suicide by the faithful as the young mother who has had her child taken from her dies only to be reunited in death.
The libretti were written by a different man from the one who wrote the first part of the triptych. Giuseppe Adami wrote the first about lust and savagery on the waterfront; the second and third are by Gioacchino Forzano.
Il Trittico's Il Tabarro (the cloak) as sexy and savage as Porgy & Bess (Part One)
Yet unlike Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica shows no lust. Instead of the earthy waterfront lovers the audience gets something cold, clinical, spiritual, punitive--sterile. No youthful love let alone lust or debauchery from Sister Angelica. Not even before her family sent her to the Catholic hospital to atone for her mortal sin. Hadn’t she been punished enough by having her son taken from her arms at birth? Was the family trying to sequester her to prevent further pregnancies and defamation of the family? The first time we lay eyes on her she’s a nun just like all the other sisters. They gather in the cold, sterile clinic with it’s industrial fluorescent lighting along with injured or sick children.
Did anybody pick out Adler fellows Heidi Melton and Leah Crocetto in their habits?
At least with the death of the old man in Gianni Schicchi, the old man went in a timely manner of natural causes (pillow to the face). Moreover like the young woman sent to a nunnery for atonement over an illegimate birth, the dying old man seemed to have overstayed his welcome in this world. Instead of comforting him after he moans, a hefty female relative bedside nonchalantly plops a pillow not behind his head but over the man’s face. It sheds some light on Suor Angelica as well, showing us in hindsight the moral consciousness behind such Draconian punishment is laughable. The dying figure is being treated as disposable to say the least.
Unfortunately the girl Sister Angelica was young, she needed forgiveness and had atoned for her mortal sin of giving birth. She loved the child moreover, it had been taken from her just as her youth and home had been. There she was caring for the injured children of others.
Yet with Gianni Schicchi’s old man, although muffled, the victim got his say by leaving nothing to the hateful clan in his will. Let Dante’s inferno and the audience be the judge of the deceased's survivors. The end justifies the means in this case. A father becomes rich although through fraud, rich enough to bring happiness to his daughter and future son in law. His wealth will enable their marriage.
Why didn’t the wealthy parents in Suor Angelica use their wealth to get their daughter married to the father of her baby? The difference is the Gianni Schicchi daughter still looked virginal for all practical purposes. Still pretty in pink. Still the teenage princess has Daddy wrapped around her finger and she sings Mio Babino Caro.
Princess the matriarch is a different story. What a magnificent contralto, cold and businesslike. So cruel to be kind. If Princess in her steel gray wool hair weren't so suited up for business, composed and cold, she could be the sexual sadist Scarpia, the policeman, in Tosca. Astonishing Ewa Podles is known for her Earth Mother goddess in The Ring Cycle, warning of the evils of pursuing the the gold ring with it's curse.
When Princess goes to the girl crumpled with grief on the floor, it’s to pull her back into a state of composure to sign some legal papers about property. The nun's son had been dead two years.
Princess in the house. Ewa Podles carries a big purse.
Nevertheless. I felt the Suor Angelica production showed mercy even as Ewa Podles’ Princess triggered the suicide.
My colleague Steve the Professor of Pain sees this story as one of a choice between following the heart and following social norms even when they don't make sense. Assuming these two are mutually exclusive.
Yet Sister Angelica instead of seeing the Madonna and child in her dying vision, envisions her son. Instead of being moralized to in the end, she receives some kindness and forgiveness. Patricia Racette made us feel her pain. She broke my heart, dying alone with her vision on a cold and dark Catholic hospital floor. The audience gave her a standing ovation and in turn Patricia seemed deeply moved and sincerely humble, hand to her heart and bowing her head.
Patricia Racette did a fine job of crying out for mercy and inspiring that feeling. It was more than a religious experience, it felt transcendant. One must rise above.
Photos: Cory Weaver
For more info: www.SFOpera.com
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