Suor Angelica is a heart-rending story of a young mother separated from her illegitimate child by her aristocratic family and confined to a convent. One of Puccini’s rawest creations, the opera takes us on an extraordinary emotional journey.
When she is forced by her family to join a convent, Angelica’s life is reduced to the confines of its walled garden. In this rose-scented cage, she is tormented by the love and life she was robbed of. Doubt consumes her as she questions her faith and tries to forgive herself and her family. A moment of crisis comes when she is visited by her aunt carrying devastating news of her son.
In Puccini’s profoundly moving score, the opera captures the searching, questioning nature of grief and the possibility or impossibility of forgiveness. Indeed the aria ‘Senza mamma’ (‘Sweetest love, you died without your mother’), is one of the most poignant Puccini ever wrote.
Sister Angelica is sung by Olivier Award-nominated soprano, Sinead Campbell-Wallace. Christine Rice, one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, sings the role of Angelica’s main tormentor, her aunt the Princess. Meanwhile, former Harewood artists, Alexandra Oomens and Madeleine Shaw, sing Sister Genovieffa and The Abbess respectively.
The production is directed by ENO’s Artistic Director, Annilese Miskimmon, and conducted by Corinna Niemeyer, Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg, who is making her ENO debut. English translation by Amanda Holden.
