From: mulford@bach.udel.edu (George Mulford)
Subject: Re: Gianni Schicchi
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 16:58:49 GMT

; --------------------------------------
; 
; From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
; Date: 28 Feb 92 14:06:13 GMT
; Organization: University of Delaware
; 
[....]
; 
; >Is O Mio Babbino Caro the best or the worst thing in Gianni Schicchi?
; 
; Neither.  It's the catchiest tune in Schicchi, but rather out of
; character with the rest of the show.  (I can't buy the argument that "of
; course it's delicious self-parody" -- how does Puccini signal us about
; such a strange choice?  It sounds just as sincere as any other soprano
; aria he wrote.)  However, the opera is so fast and funny that a little
; lyrical interlude, on however slim a pretext, is a welcome condiment in
; the mixture.
; 
[....]
; >Is it important whether they are done in translation or original language?
; 
; Yes.  If everyone present has Italian as their primary language, then do
; them in Italian.  If not, not.  I've seen the show twice in English
; translation, and it comes across brilliantly that way.
; 
Well, Jon, either I misunderstand you or your English translation,
however brilliant, seems to have misled you as to the tone of O Mio
Babbino Caro.

/multimedia smiley with maybe a little raspberry/

While not "self-parody" if that means "parody of Puccini by Puccini" and
not precisely camp, and while undoubtedly "sincere" in the sense that
the emotions portrayed are assumed to be felt by the character
expressing them, this is a comic aria, that is, an aria by a straight
character in a comic opera.  It has more than one point.  Let's see if I
can list them:

1.  Lauretta's point:  You have to make it so I can marry Rinuccio,
because I love him.

2.  The point, for the plot:  Schicchi, who has just sworn to do nothing
for this pack of thieves, changes his mind instantly when his daughter
cries, because she has him wrapped around her little finger.

3.  The point, for character:  this charming young thing is as
empty-headed as they come, but she is beautiful, sincere, and has a
great voice, and when she sings "Babbo, pieta," you couldn't resist her
either.

4.  The point, sociologically:  as you'd expect from the daughter of a
nouveau riche, Lauretta expresses herself in a touchingly naive low
style, full of Florentine idiom--starting with "Babbo" and "Babbino" and
going on to "buttarmi in Arno."  This is in comic contrast to her lover,
Rinuccio, who has a very high-class diction for his very cosmopolitan
aria about how Florence has been enriched by the constant influx of
talent from the merchant class.  Rinuccio starts with a simile;
Lauretta starts with a cry from the heart.

Rinuccio:  Firenze e com'un albero fiorito...

Lauretta:  Mi piace, e bello bello!

The marriage of Lauretta (her very NAME is a diminutive) and Rinuccio 
gives the plot its closure on all those levels:  the innocent, silly
lovers are supposed to get married in a comedy; Schicchi wins what he
wanted all along; and the union of a daughter of the gente nuova with
the oldest family in Florence, and of a girl with a shopkeeper's accent
with a young man of obvious culture, is emblematic of the renewal of
society from below that Schicchi's ascendancy represents.

OK?

I saw Gianni Schicchi on a double bill with Ravel's L'Heure Espagnol.
It doesn't get any better than that.


-- 

George W. Mulford                              mulford@brahms.udel.edu
Instructional Technology Center                University of Delaware
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical