Sara Fulgoni / Reviews

Most families will recognise the scene: a wealthy relative dies, and suddenly the whole family gets interested. There is a will to be read, and everyone has high hopes for themselves. And nothing is new: the Italian poet Dante wrote his comic episode about family greed in his Divine Comedy. And centuries later the composer Giacomo Puccini set it to music, writing his hilarious short comic opera Gianni Schicchi. Schicchi is the wily Florentine brought in to resolve a problem when an all-important will cannot be found. The hopeful relatives are banking on acquiring, property, land, a mule... The character is based on a real-life fixer, Giovanni Schicchi de’ Cavalcanti.