(Credit: Richard Lewisohn)

The Grange Park Opera has announced that it will present a film version of Puccini’s comic masterpiece “Gianni Schicchi.”

“Though the real Donati family and Schicchi lived in the early 1300s, and Puccini set his opera at that time, we are depicting a greedy family and a rogue of today. However, our Schicchi is a loveable rogue, as this simply makes the saga even funnier,” said Grange Park Opera CEO Wasfi Kani. “Also, some of the societal attitudes and personal failings that inspired Dante, then Puccini remain very much apparent today. They are what drove the storylines such TV shows as Dynasty and The Sopranos, in which the machinations of the Carringtons and juggling the work-life balance as a criminal, inevitably come with consequences. Perfect themes for the genre of opera,” added Kani.

The opera will star Chloe Morgan, Sara Fulgoni, Luis Gomes, Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts, Ailish Tynan, Lorcan Voaden, Alan Ewing, Jeremy White, Emyr Wyn Jones, Jessica Costelloe, and William Dazeley in the title role. Chris Hopkins conducts a production by Stephen Medcalf.

“Gianni Schicchi” will be able available for viewing for free from Jan. 6, 2022 on the company’s official website.