Il Tabarro is the first of three short and loosely related operas from Puccini’s Il Tritico. It is followed by Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi
We spent the day of the opera slipping around Central Park like a couple of tourists, even going ice skating. It was a day made for winter coats.
Michele from Il Tabarro is also wearing a coat. It’s big enough for two, and believe me when I say you’re going to want to stick around to find out what’s underneath.
Il Tabarro is a freaking dark mining into the primal depths of betrayal and jealousy.
I love it!
The music undulates like winter on the Seine to parallel the inner turmoil of the characters. For the full hour it feels like Puccini is holding our heads below; no light, no joy, just cold hulls and ropes in a churning water.
It turns out to be a special evening. We notice immediately that something unexpected is going on. I feel underdressed suddenly for the crowd is behaving like it’s a gala or something. The something is Placido Domingo. It is his 50 year anniversary of performing at the Met and later he will be playing the role of Gianni Schicchi.
We had no idea. We came for the Puccini, but we will stay for the Placido.
Between operas they play video clips from Placido Domingo’s career. They also present him gifts; first a piece of the stage and then the jacket he wore for his famous role of Otello. The jacket has ostentatously been dipped in gold. Dipping jackets in gold I think might be the kind of flex where opera loses its common audience.
Placido Domingo will close tonights trio with Gianni Schicci, a much needed comic relief after two of the bleakest operas in the repertoire.
The evening is a triumph and after the applause we shake out the dead and put on or coats.
So What’s Il Tabarro all about? It begins with a couple on a barge, Giorgetta and Michele. Giorgetta is cheating on Michele with Luigi and she longs to go away with him and forget her life on the barge with the older Michele and the memory of the child they have lost. Luigi waits for Giorgetta to light a match that evening as a signal to meet. Later that night while she goes below deck it is Michele who lights a match for his cigar and Luigi will pay for the mistaken encounter that match sparks. Chains and coats will greet him and not Georgetta.
Notes on the production
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Giorgetta…………….……. Amber Wagner
Luigi……………………..……. Marcelo Alvarez
Michele……………………. George Gagnidze
Talpa……………………….…. Maurizio Muraro
Frugola……………….……… MaryAnn McCormick
Conductor………….…….. Bertrand de Billy
Metropolitan Opera
11/23/18