Puccini's lifelong love of tragic themes, whether it is Manon who died of illness with his lover, Qiaoqiaosang, who was abandoned by chaos and died, or Tosca, who jumped from the castle, all of which made the audience sigh incomparably. But as Plato put it: "A tragic poet can also become a comedic writer." Puccini's only comedy opera, Jani Skiki, proves this.
From November 11 to 14, 2021, the new Puccini opera "Gianni Skiki" will be staged for the first time at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, continuing to convey the immortal charm of the opera masters.
Puccini wrote in a letter to Sever in 1911: "I have a strong desire to laugh, to make the audience laugh. Seven years later, he fulfilled this wish with Jani Skicky, which has been laughed at and thought by countless audiences since its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918.
The story of the play is born out of Dante's Divine Comedy, but the composer deconstructs the original from a completely different perspective. The forged will of JaniSkiki was given the image of a witty and humorous father, and in order to fulfill his daughter's love, he designed to play with the greedy and snobbish members of the Donati family, and made the so-called "rational distribution" of Mr. Donati's huge estate. On stage, more than a dozen "friends and family" who came to compete for the inheritance constantly shouted, discussed, insulted and roared, with different personalities, representing the group portraits of all classes of Italy in the eyes of composers at that time, and the dramatic conflict between them was also full of irony.
"Jani Skiki" will be another Puccini opera produced by the National Centre for the Performing Arts after works such as Turandot, Tosca, Artist Career, Andress of the West, and it is also the first new world classic opera produced by the National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2021.
This edition will be produced by the National Centre for the Performing Arts Music And Artistic Director Lu Jia conducts the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra to "escort" the singers. The music of "Jani Skiki" is densely conceived and exquisite, the highly linguistic melodic writing technique is skillful and sophisticated, and the music is still clear and calm and rigorous when dealing with complex and trivial character dialogues, with "Italian" humor running through it from beginning to end. With many years of travel experience, Lu Jia has been praised by the media as "a conductor who knows Italian opera better than Italians", the accurate expression of musical intentions is closely related to the proper singing voice pronunciation, in the rehearsal, Lü Jia not only puts forward high-level requirements for the musical performance of singers, but also constantly uses vivid language examples to teach everyone the mystery of singing Italian opera.
In this version of the production, Jani Sski and his simple and infatuated daughter Laureta will be played by the National Centre for the Performing Arts opera actors Liu Songhu and Zhang Wenqin respectively, and when the father refuses to ask for help, the daughter sings "My dear father" in a half-joking tone, thus winning the father's help, and then there is a later story. Lauretta's lover Li Nuqiao will be played by the young tenor Chen Dashuai, Duan Nina, Chai Jin, Cao Ruidong, Xu Ruiyang, Geng Zhe, Yang Di, Hu Yue, Zhang Yang, Tong Ziyang, Chen Lei and other outstanding young singers will also join hands on the same stage, with superb singing voice and acting skills to create a unique comedic effect.
This edition of "Jani Skiki" is a remake of the band performance version after the piano version of the small theater in 2011, which will fully show the artistic creativity of the "Grand Theater Man" from stage art, lighting, costumes, multimedia to costumes and props. Director Wu Yin, who has studied in Italy for many years, has a deep understanding of the story set in Florence in the background of "Jani Skiki", in order to achieve a higher unity with the artistry of this version of the production, she has carefully adjusted the script and lines, and made a more in-depth conception of love, family and friendship throughout the play, committed to showing richer character relationships and inner activities in this opera that attaches equal importance to singing and acting, and creating a "drama with music" from the perspective of performance.
Photography / Niu Xiaobei
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Tian Wanting
Editor/Ying Qiao