The department of Opera at USC staged its show “Puccini Plus: Featuring Gianni Schicchi,” with three performances on Feb. 28, March 1 and March 2. The production featured a one-act opera and two additional songs from Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini.
Ellen Schlaefer, the director of opera studies at USC said the opera has significance in the history of the USC School of Music, specifically to the beginning of formal education at the school of music 100 years ago. Schlaefer decided to pay homage to this landmark date at USC through the choices in what shows Opera at USC performed.
The spring semester’s show features the music of Giacomo Puccini due to his passing in 1924, the same year that the School of Music opened on campus.
The show's plot centers around the rich Donati family, consisting of nine main members. They are a wealthy family of individuals headed by Buoso Donati, who's passing leads to the Donati family trying to edit his will after learning his savings have been attributed to a group of friars.
“Gianni Schicchi was a legendary shyster and conniver, and he dupes the family of Buoso Donati,” Schlaefer said.
Through a series of events, the character Gianni Schicchi worms his way into a position to attribute parts of the will to himself and his daughter, much to the Donati family’s dismay.
In order to connect more to the time period of 1924, Schlaefer themed the set and costumes around the Roaring Twenties time period that the School of Music was founded in. This heavily differs from the traditional setting of "Gianni Schicchi" in 1299.
The composer of "Gianni Schicchi", Giacomo Puccini, is a prominent figure in the opera world with many hits under his belt. These include “La Boheme”, the inspiration for the Broadway musical “Rent” and famous opera aria "Nessun Dorma”.
One reason Schlaefer chose this opera was due to a personal connection to it in her past.
"Its just been a part of my professional life for so long ... It was the first opera I ever stage managed as a professional, and I was in Omaha, Nebraska when I did it," Schlaefer said.
Puccini's operas tend to have a darker theme and deal with more timely subjects, being written in the verismo style.
Schlaefer said Gianni Schicchi differs from the rest of Puccini's offerings as the opera is much lighter.
"I've directed them (Puccini Operas), I've stage managed them, I've (assistant-directed) them, I've taken them on tour ... But Schicchi, it's just fun," Schlaefer said.
In November 2024, Opera at USC performed Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Ruddigore,” a drama about a man who inherits his family curse that forces him to commit crimes every day. This show coincided with a performance of the same show 100 years ago on campus. To call back to this initial first performance, Opera at USC included many allusions to USC in the 1920's.
"We set our fall production, Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, on campus in 1924 ... We made everybody dress like 1924, we had them as students and we were lucky enough to borrow a mock up of the Maxcy statue in the middle of the Horseshoe," Schlaefer said.
During a happy moment in the opera, characters Zita and Simone dance with the prop cane. The opera "Gianni Schicchi" is about Gianni Schicchi trying to get money from the rich Donati's family's will because he doesn’t want to pay anymore for his daughter’s wedding.
The Dean of the School of Music, Tayloe Harding, said the School of Music has developed greatly since its inception in 1924.
"In the late 20s ... the university hired a faculty member to make a music degree, which was, what we would call nowadays, a music education degree ... And, the department of music was born not long after that," Harding said.
"Gianni Schicchi" has been integrated into the centennial year's festivities through going on a tour around South Carolina through USC.
"When it (the opera) closes, the show that they're doing will be taken on tour at the end of this month to all four of the Palmetto college campuses on four consecutive nights," Harding said.
Mason Collins, a fourth-year music education student, said he enjoys the sense of unity that is brought about by the celebration this year.
"I think sometimes it can very much feel like band is doing their thing, orchestra is doing their thing, choir is doing their thing. But I think the celebration of the centennial has really brought us all together to show that no matter what facet of music you're studying, all of us are engaging in the same art form that is music," Collins said.
The 100th anniversary of the School of Music is not just about the performances and trips taken by musical ensembles though, Harding said.
"We're also doing oral histories, and we have a story written every month by a professional writer about one aspect of the school. When those 12 stories are done, and then we write a 13th on the future of the school, we're going to make those into a book," Harding said.
More information on the the School of Music's anniversary and "Gianni Schicchi" can be found on the school's website.