Suor Angelica Puccini's Il Trittico

Welcome to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden

for this performance of Suor Angelica,

the second opera in Puccini's Il Trittico, three one-act operas.

It was Puccini's personal favourite in his triptych.

It is a lyrical tragedy.

It's intense, slow movement draws you in,

but Puccini's waiting to overwhelm you emotionally.

Our setting here is a catholic children's hospital run by nuns.

Sister Angelica has been here for seven years

and has become an expert herbalist,

creating remedies for the sick children.

She's laconic but much loved.

Yet she's hiding a deep secret.

She can feel something wrong or something not comfortable for her

you know, is going around.

It's the human drama, which... it's impossible, you know, to stay cold.

It's bar seven, two bars before the chorus, and...

I never sang this role before

but I feel that I sang it for the whole of my life.

I'm rehearsing every day, six hours, per day and still believe me,

every rehearsal I finish, you know, crying.

Dramatically, acting, it's really, really challenging.

The whole machine, the vocal chords

and the body has to be really relaxed to sing that aria.

And to keep the control is really difficult,

but sometimes you have to let it go

because the public must believe that something real is happening,

it's not just the singer is playing.

I'm putting everything there and I'm thinking in my head

it's like my first and last performance of my life.

We start with a favourite device of Puccini,

the sound of voices off stage.

The chapel bell calls the nuns to prayer,

we hear them singing in unison and the piccolo affecting a bird's song.

He creates a simple, sweet and tender atmosphere,

not forecasting the drama to come.

CHURCH BELLS CHIME

DOOR SLAMS

LAUGHTER

THEY LAUGH

DOORBELL RINGS

Suor Angelica.

SHE WAILS

SHE SOBS

SHE WEEPS BITTERLY

KNOCKING

SHE COUGHS

APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

The tragic and emotionally powerful conclusion to Suor Angelica,

Puccini's favourite opera of his Triptych.

And mine.

In the third and final opera, the mood changes completely to comedy,

as a family squabbles over a will in the much-loved

but oh-so-cruel Gianni Schicchi.

So join me, Antonio Pappano, once again

at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd