Overview
Introduction
Pucinni: Il tabarro (The Cloak)
Il Tabarro (The Cloak) is a one-act opera by Puccini with the libretto by Giuseppe Adami based on the play La Houppelande, by Didier Gold.It was first performed at the metropolitan opera house, new york, 14 december 1918. The action takes place in Paris, on a barge tied to a landing stage on the Seine. Il tabarro’s impressionistic score is highly atmospheric. The brooding theme of the orchestral prelude summons up the weariness of life on the barge, and the night sounds of Paris and its river permeate the opening scene. There are very few lyrical moments in the opera, and only one extended aria, Michele’s ‘Nulla! Silenzio!’, which dramatically portrays the betrayed husband’s jealousy and despair. Though hardly memorable, Puccini’s score carries the melodramatic action along with strength and conviction. The oprea runs approximately 55 minutes in length.
Roles
Michele, a barge owner, aged 50 baritone
Luigi, aged 20 tenor
Tinca, aged 35 tenor stevedores
Talpa, aged 55 bass
Giorgetta,Michele’s wife, aged 25 soprano
La Frugola, Talpa’s wife, aged 50 mezzo-soprano
Synopsis
Time: the beginning of the twentieth century;
Place: Paris;
It is twilight.While Michele, the barge owner, stands at the helm watching the sunset, his young wife Giorgetta busies herself with various tasks and the stevedores finish unloading sacks of cement from the barge onto the quay.When their work is completed,Michele goes below, Giorgetta produces a jug of wine and the stevedores drink and dance to the accompaniment of a barrel organ on the quayside. Giorgetta and Luigi, the youngest stevedore, are dancing together when Michele comes up on deck again, and the merriment ceases. La Frugola, a ragpicker, arrives to collect her husband, Talpa, with whom she sets off home as the sky darkens. Giorgetta and Luigi, who is her secret lover, make plans to meet later in the evening. He will come aboard at her usual signal, the lighting of a match. Before
he leaves the barge, Luigi asks Michele to pay him off when they reach Rouen, for he intends to look for work there. Left alone with his wife,Michele recalls their past happiness, reminding Giorgetta of the days when he used to shelter her beneath his cloak as they stood on the deck.He reproaches her for no longer loving him, but she replies that nothing has changed except that they are now both older, and she goes below to their cabin.Michele, convinced that she has a lover, wonders which of the stevedores it might be.When Michele lights his pipe, Luigi, watching from the shadows, mistakes this for Giorgetta’s signal and comes on board. Forcing the youth to confess that he is Giorgetta’s lover,Michele strangles him and hides the body under his cloak. Alarmed by the noise, Giorgetta comes up on deck. She attempts to make her peace with Michele, and he invites her to nestle close to him, as she used to do, inside his cloak.As she approaches, he flings the cloak open, revealing the dead body of Luigi.
