United Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [18]: R. Strauss, Puccini: Tiffin Boys’ Choir, London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor). Royal Albert Hall, London, 19.8.2025. (JR)
R. Strauss – Die Frau ohne Schatten – Symphonic Fantasy
Puccini – Suor Angelica (concert version)
Cast:
Carolina López Moreno – Sister Angelica
Kseniia Nikolaieva – Princess (Aunt)
Elena Zilio – Monitress
Angela Schisano – Mistress of the Novices
Sarah Dufresne – Sister Genovieffa
Monika-Evelin Liiv – Abbess
Jenny Stafford – First Alms Sister
Katie Lowe – Nurse Sister
Manon Ogwen Parry – First Postulant / First Novice
Julia Solomon – Second Postulant
Hayley Meth – Sister Dolcirà
Carolin Bourg – Second Alms Sister
Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten is one of his greatest operatic masterpieces, despite Hoffmannsthal’s complicated and heavily symbolic plot; the Symphonic Fantasy he composed for concert performance (at the age of 81, nearly 30 years after composing the opera, just after World War II, at the request of Boosey & Hawkes) showcases the opulent and magical melodies contained in the fairy-tale opera. (Strauss was tainted – rightly or wrongly, there is a lot of debate on this topic – with his failure to criticise the Nazi regime at the time, and later thought his operas would therefore not be performed for some while). Pappano, in his element in this concert comprising the music of two operas, launched into the three tone theme of Keikobad with menace and we knew we were in business. Then in came the silken strings of the first violins of the London Symphony Orchestra reminding us of one of the glories of this premium orchestra. Pappano proceeded to unfold the music, sinuously, in one flowing line and we revelled in the glorious colours of the score, taking in the exoticism of glockenspiel, xylophone and castanets. The piece almost became a tone poem to equal Richard Strauss’s many other fine tone poems. Full marks to the principal trombone, Simon Johnson, for his solo contribution.
After the interval, a concert performance of Suor Angelica, the second in Puccini’s triptych of one-act operas known together as Il trittico. The story revolves around a young woman, Angelica, forced to become a nun after having an illegitimate child. Angelica has been in the convent for seven years, the other nuns have, it seems, no knowledge of the reason she is in the convent, but there is plenty of gossip. One day Angelica’s aunt (a Princess) turns up to say that Angelica’s sister is getting married and that sister will now inherit the family fortune. When Angelica asks about her son, the aunt says he fell ill and died, and Angelica suffers a breakdown, poisons herself and dies.
This tear-jerker of an opera is often eclipsed by the first opera in the trio, Il tabarro, which is dramatic in nature and the plot of which resembles both Verdi’s Rigoletto and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci: love, revenge, death on a barge. The last opera of the series, Gianni Schicchi, then often steals the evening with its high jinks humour; heirs try to re-write an old man’s Will. Consequently Suor Angelica often gets rather overlooked and forgotten (the programme referred to the opera as Puccini’s ‘Cinderella’), so high praise to Antonio Pappano for bringing to a wide audience at the BBC Proms and on Radio 3 this gentle but ultimately dramatic short (60-minute) opera and also, a few days earlier, at the Edinburgh International Festival. As far as the singers are concerned, I can do no better than refer you, particularly as to the high quality of the singers, to Simon Thompson’s recent review from Edinburgh with the same forces – bar the chorus (review here).
In the Royal Albert Hall, the ladies of the LSO Chorus had no problem with both intonation and dynamic control, though I did feel sorry for the tenors and basses who had very little to sing and were then virtually inaudible in the mix. The Tiffin Boys’ Choir added youthful treble colour to the opera’s overall atmosphere in the final scene.
The star of the show was, without question, Bolivian-Albanian soprano Carolina López Moreno, who sang and acted with utter conviction. Some of the top notes were perhaps not spot on, but no matter, overall she was always the centre of vocal and visual attention and simply spectacular. Moreno has sung Butterfly in Florence and Lyon, Violetta in Florence and Genoa, Marguerite at Covent Garden, and Liù at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago. This was her debut at the Proms and the audience gave her a rapturous reception that she will not quickly forget.
Kseniia Nikolaieva sang the role of the Princess with some stunning low register notes, more a contralto than a mezzo-soprano. Veteran Elena Zilio, now in her mid-Eighties, still had admirable vocal power to fill the Albert Hall. Of the remaining sisters, I was most impressed with Sarah Dufresne’s sparkling soprano in the role of Sister Genovieffa.
This was the very first performance of Suor Angelica at the Proms. It will probably not feature in many people’s list of favourite operas (as Die Frau ohne Schatten does in mine), as it lacks any memorable melodies but Pappano showed us the work’s strengths in this extremely fine performance.
John Rhodes
Featured Image: Sir Antonio Pappano conducting Suor Angelica at the BBC Proms 2025 © Mark Allan/BBC
Mr Rhodes – ‘Lacks any memorable melodies’ … ‘Senza Mama; is one of Puccini’s most famous melodic soprano arias. ‘Oh my baby, you died without me. If only I’d been there to hold you. Kiss your lips as they grew colder.’
When I saw this at Covent Garden a few years ago with Ermonela Jaho the whole audience was in tears. What follows is another wonderfully melodic intermezzo followed of course with Angelica’s suicide. In which medics were needed to help a couple of distressed patrons!
Yes, Suor Angelica is Puccini’s biggest tearjerker. Even more than Mimì in La bohème, Tosca, Butterfly, Manon or Liù.
Lacking in memorable melodies? Mr Rhodes I could say the obvious, But I don’t want to be rude. I will just say that when I met Puccini’s granddaughter nearly 25 years ago at Torre del Lago. She told me that her grandfather took much advice from his sister who was Mother Superior of a Convent in Tuscany when it came to Suor Angelica.
As for melody I better not tell you what she thought of the most famous musical composer in the UK when comparing him to Puccini!
I quite agree about ‘Senza mamma’ – wonderful tune but the score is full of marvellous Puccinian touches. I too saw Ermonela Jaho and often watch the DVD of the Covent Garden production. As for Pappano – he is a genius with Puccini’s music.