Gianni Schicchi

On 12 September, Gianni Schicchi opened the LA Opera’s 2015/2016 season, which marks its 30th anniversary. The production by director Woody Allen first saw the light of day in LA in 2008, travelled to Teatro Real in Madrid and now returns home, restaged by Kathleen Smith Belcher – a highly-anticipated homecoming by audiences and critics alike. Gianni Schicchi premiered at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1918, being the third and final installment of Giacomo Puccini’s Trittico. It is based on an episode from Dante’s Divine Comedy. The story begins with the death of a Florence family patriarch who had the audacity to leave his fortune to a monastery rather than his greedy family. Clever Gianni is asked to rewrite the will to the family’s benefit. Little do they know that Gianni has his own agenda and is determined to help out two young lovers…