It wasn’t lost on me that the first experience I had with live, in-person performing arts since the start of COVID-19 was watching a death scene. Blessedly, the death was that of Buoso Donati, and it was the only sobering part of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ production of Gianni Schicchi, a comedy by Giacomo Puccini. After 2020, I needed a laugh, and the scheme that Donati’s greedy relatives cook up after his demise provided several.
I needed some joy, too, and the outdoor performance didn’t disappoint. For its 2021 festival season, which opened Saturday, OTSL is staging four new productions outside, on a stage next to the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts on Webster University’s campus. Audience members are seated in pods of one or two, 6 feet apart from others. Masks are required as you file into the “theater.” If you are vaccinated, you may remove your face covering once you’re seated. As the sun set and the program started, a beautiful streak of pink appeared in the sky, and birds flew overhead. Maybe it was the natural surroundings. Maybe it was Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (the first time I had heard live music in 14 months). Whatever it was only enhanced what was happening on stage, so much so that I wondered why we ever watched opera inside (die-hards might say in case of inclement weather—which, fine, but did I mention the pink sky?—or to cut down on competing noise, but I didn’t notice much of that).
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What did capture my attention: Last night’s performance was exuberant. It was fun. After the death of Donati (Gerdine Young Artist Chance Jonas-O’Toole), his relatives tear apart his room in a hunt for his will. They’re particularly keen on obtaining the document after hearing a rumor that the dead man bequeathed everything to some monks. Rinuccio (Joshua Blue) discovers Donati’s will and, before he opens it, asks permission to marry Gianni Schicchi’s daughter, Lauretta (Elena Villalón). His aunt Zita (La’Shelle Q. Allen) agrees…as long as the family gets Donati’s money.
Get it they do, but to reveal how they do it would be spoiling it for you. Because Donati did indeed leave his fortune to the friars, and to please his daughter, Schicchi, played by Levi Hernandez, will have to come up with a couple of hijinks to re-route the money.
Witnessing Hernandez switch between baritone and a higher-pitched nasal singing voice to impersonate Donati is one of the funnier parts of the opera. Villalón’s performance of the better-known aria “O mio babbino caro,” in which her character threatens to throw herself into the Arno if her father doesn’t help her stay with Rinuccio, is one of the more impassioned, earnest moments. Comedy or drama, one thing’s clear: OTSL’s outdoor season is one not to miss.
