Review: Stephanie Blythe easily triumphs in male title role of San Diego Opera’s ‘Puccini Duo’

Marina Costa-Jackson, left, as Lauretta, and Stephanie Blythe as her father, Gianni in "Gianni Schicchi."

Marina Costa-Jackson also made an impressive company debut in both ‘Suor Angelica’ and ‘Gianni Schicchi’

Feb. 13, 2023 9:58 AM PT

On Saturday night, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe did what no other woman opera singer in the world has done before in a professional production.

She sang the high baritone title male role in Giacomo Puccini’s comic “Gianni Schicchi” on opening night of San Diego Opera’s “Puccini Duo” double-bill at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

The result, like everything Blythe does, was perfectly pitched, well-sung, well-acted and hilarious. But most interesting, it was seamless. With Blythe in a realistic beard, wig and male costume, it’s impossible to tell by sight or, most critically, sound that a woman was playing the role.

Stage director Kyle Lang’s amusing and farcelike update of the “Gianni Schicchi” setting from 1299 to 1959 makes for a fun and lighthearted romp, and it’s a good counterweight to the more serious first half of the program, Puccini’s “Suor Angelica.”

Marina Costa-Jackson in the title role of "Suor Angelica" in San Diego Opera's "Puccini Duo."

“Gianni Schicchi” is about a family who conspires with fellow a Florentine, Gianni, to rewrite the will of their newly deceased patriarch so they will inherit the fortune he has left to the church. Schicchi dresses up as the dying man to meet with the notary but has his own agenda on who will inherit what. “Suor Angelica” is a dark one-act about a cloistered nun who becomes suicidal after discovering that her illegitimate 7-year-old son has died.

Soprano Marina Costa-Jackson makes an impressive company debut playing both the devastated Suor Angelica and the lovesick Lauretta in “Gianni Schicchi,” two vastly different roles. Angelica requires virtuoso and gutty dramatic singing, while Lauretta is the bubbly songbird who sings the famous aria “O mio babbino caro.” As Angelica, Costa-Jackson sang with anguish and fear, and as Lauretta, her vocals danced.

This month’s production is the first time “Suor Angelica” has been performed by San Diego Opera, and only the second time the company has produced “Gianni Schicchi” (the last was in 1972). SDSU Opera Theatre presented “Suor Angelica” in 1961 and 1986, and “Gianni Schicchi” in 2002. Nonetheless, the music may be new to many showgoers, but the sweet, rolling melodies of Puccini sound instantly familiar.

“Suor Angelica” is mostly a choral opera set in a convent, with an all-female cast performing stunningly beautiful sacred music, pristinely directed by choral master Bruce Stasyna. “Gianni Schicchi” offers both comic ensemble work and solos for Blythe, Costa-Jackson and tenor Piotr Buszewski as Lauretta’s love, Rinuccio, who wore a face mask on opening night due to his recent recovery from COVID.

San Diego Opera’s principal conductor, Yves Abel, nimbly led the San Diego Symphony musicians through the diverse score that ranges from tragic to sweeping in the first act to fast-paced and effervescent in the second. It was a pleasure to hear the twitter of woodwind “birds,” and aural reminiscences of “La bohème” and other earlier Puccini works in “Schicchi” and the ethereal rising notes of the “Suor Angelica” finale.

San Diego scenic designer Tim Wallace created the production’s two-sided set, which was a spartan convent hall in act one and an elaborately decorated, two-story Tuscan home in act two. The scene change, accomplished during intermission, was quick, so the whole evening ran just two hours, 15 minutes.