★★★★☆
I never see Gianni Schicchi without wishing that Puccini had tried his hand at comedy more often. And a staging as deftly etched, black-humoured and vibrantly performed as Liam Steel’s for English Touring Opera only sharpens the regret.
Based on Dante, the opera revolves around a deathbed. So the set designed by Neil Irish is a bedroom cluttered with bric-a-brac, ghastly period furniture and, of course, the venal relatives of the deceased Buoso Donati, desperate to destroy his real will and concoct their own.
This claustrophobic look, heightened by the cast’s white-faced-clown make-up and the synchronised gestures of stylised shock and horror, only intensifies the atmosphere of unbridled greed and unscrupulous cunning. It also increases one’s admiration of the way in which a gradual