# Il Trittico (Il Tabarro/Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi) DVD



## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

This has been lying around the house tantalisingly for a week, and today I took the wrapper off and sat down to watch that one-hour tear-jerking extravaganza, _Suor Angelica_ - in fact, _Suor Angelica_ was the primary reason for my buying this DVD.

At first I wasn't entirely convinced by Amarilli Nizza as Angelica (I've been spoiled by the simply stunning recorded performance by Cristina Gallardo-Domâs on the EMI Classics CD set), but after a while I started to adjust to it. I confess to being an old softie, and by the time Angelica was singing about the grace descending upon her, I was reaching for an extra hankie. Suor Angelica contains some of the most intensely moving music I know, and the last 25 minutes or so are a real weep-fest, for me.

So onward we go, working towards the great climax of Angelica's suicide, and the catastrophic realisation, too late, of what she's done, and the anguished pleading for forgiveness and I'm thinking Oh-My-Gosh this (sob) is wonderful (sob) .... and then the miraculous apparition begins.... and ... oh .... no ....

What is supposed to happen is that the Blessed Virgin appears with Angelica's illegitimate son (whose death is the reason for her suicide), and he comforts Angelica as she dies. It must be fiendishly difficult to do this without it becoming cloyingly sentimental, and some producers (perhaps wisely) seem to omit it altogether and leave it to the imagination. But here in this performance, when we reach the crucial last couple of minutes, the apparition at the end is of not one, but _two_ children: Angelica's son, and the Virgin _as a little girl_. The effect of this on me is to make me squirm at the Disneyfication of an ending that already comes dangerously close to mawkishness.

So, if you're looking for a good Angelia DVD, be warned. 99% of this production is marvellous. But depending on how you respond to sentimentality, you might find that the ending oozes just too much treacle for comfort.

When I get around to watching the other two operas in the trilogy, I'll add a comment to this thread.


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