Butler Opera Theatre’s own performers prepare to take the stage. Photo by Samantha Noga.
HARRISON PRYOR | STAFF REPORTER | hrpryor@butler.edu
When one thinks of opera, they often think of dramatic tales of death or glory and grandiose deliveries of complex themes. Nobody would expect an opera — let alone two — to be a gut-busting comedy, but that’s just what “Gianni Schicchi” and “Buoso’s Ghost” are.
Butler Opera Theatre staged a free production of the short opera saga at Schrott Center for the Arts on March 28 and 29. It follows a wealthy family trying to rewrite their late relative Buoso’s will and reap the rewards — and consequences. Each one-act show was short; the performance was less than two hours, including the fifteen-minute intermission. Dr. Oliver Worthington, an associate professor of voice at the Butler School of Music, directed the production.
“Gianni Schicchi”, composed by Giacomo Puccini in 1917-18, was the last in a trilogy of short, one-off operas, and “Buoso’s Ghost” is a sequel written by Michael Ching in 1997.
“Gianni Schicchi” follows the comically cruel Donati family as they discover that their dear Uncle Buoso left all his money to the local monastery instead of them. Desperate to claim the fortune, they enlist the help of the titular Gianni Schicchi. However, they soon learn that what they want and what they deserve are two very different things.
Buoso’s death was only the first in a series of fantastic displays of physical comedy. As the family scurried to find his will and pretended to grieve when a knock hit their door, the audience could not contain their laughter at every little gesture.
Kelsey Thomas — the first-year vocal performance major who played Buoso’s cousin Zita — believes any good opera comes with great physical acting.
“It really brought it to life,” Thomas said. “Before, when we were doing less physical comedy, it did not seem like a show. It seemed rough [and] not put together. As soon as we had notes, we were like, ‘It’s becoming a show. Without the amount of physical comedy that we are doing, it [would not] seem like a show.’”
Of course, the comedy goes well beyond physicality. Schicchi agrees to help the Donatis on the condition that his daughter Lauretta be allowed to marry the noble Donati nephew Rinuccio — played by fifth-year vocal performance major Luke Barath. Lauretta was played by Avery King, a sophomore choral music education and vocal performance double major, on the first day and senior vocal performance major Rio Garza on the second. The Donatis’ disgust at the thought of a peasant girl marrying into the family sets off a sequence of both funny and heartfelt songs.
Barath enjoyed the unpredictability “Gianni Schicchi” — both opera and character — brought to the audience.
“Long story short … Gianni Schicchi comes in, and he pretends to be the dead Buoso Donati,” Barath said. “They are able to trick the lawyer and [witnesses] into rewriting the will. But Gianni Schicchi does not do it for free; he gets stuff out of it and tricks the family into [letting him get] some of the main riches. It is just a really interesting, clever story. You never know what is going to happen next.”
Rinuccio and Lauretta are the purest pair in a cast of greedy schemers but never become the main characters. They briefly steal the show with some love songs but are sidelined for the family’s dastardly plot. In fact, the second opera, “Buoso’s Ghost”, begins with them leaving the opera entirely to go wedding shopping.
“Buoso’s Ghost” picks up immediately where “Gianni Schicchi” left off and sees the suddenly wealthy protagonist beset by the vengeful Donati family, who he has learned are worse than he imagined. As it turns out, it is not just the Donatis’ words that are venomous. Accusations fly, and an in-mansion courtroom drama full of twists and turns ensues.
In a hilarious display of comedic commitment, Buoso’s corpse continued to get dragged and tossed around all night long. Regardless of whether he was on or under the bed, Buoso’s actor stayed perfectly still for the entire show.
JCA Technical Director Cathy Sipe, whose position was made to accommodate her wide array of theatre production skills, explained that even this simple set had its difficulties.
“It takes a lot of planning to put it all together this quickly,” Sipe said. “I know [Worthington and the set designer] met in January to discuss the set. It has been a time crunch for sure.”
Junior music arts major Ian Knight played Buoso on the first day. They switched with Nathan Matthews — the senior choral music education major who played Gianni Schicchi himself — on the second. This was to give both actors a chance to shine, seeing as Buoso spends the whole show as a speechless corpse being carted around.
According to Barath, Buoso’s lifeless state and the actors’ antics were as funny as they were distracting.
“We have so much fun onstage. I feel like half the time, the hardest part onstage is trying not to break character,” Barath said. “[Either] someone next to you [is] doing the stupidest thing ever, or the person sitting under the bed is staring at you.”
