Opera Ithaca's Original Film Production Of GIANNI SCHICCHI Premieres Tonight

Opera Ithaca has produced a "backstabbingly socially distant" orchestrated film version of Puccini's one-act comic opera Gianni Schicchi, to be released for streaming on Friday, October 9, 2020, through Cinemapolis, Ithaca's premiere independent movie theater, and available to stream for two weeks exclusively at https://cinemapolis.org/film/opera-ithaca-presents-gianni-schicchi/. The regular streaming price is $25, with tickets available at $15 for industry members and $10 for students. Following its run at Cinemapolis, Gianni Schicchi will be streamed on demand at www.operaithaca.org.

Check out this teaser:

Gianni Schicchi, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in the midst of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, is set in the present day. The opera tells the story of the Donati family as they attempt to thwart the will of their patriarch, who has disinherited them all. They enlist the aid of the titular con man, who has an agenda of his own.

Filmed and recorded with complete social distance measures in place, the dramatic thrust of the narrative has been shaped to mirror the current circumstances, and Puccini's 102-year-old masterpiece again shines with its timelessness and familiar immediacy. "We are taking life as we know it in 2020 and throwing in opera's favorite dysfunctional family," said director Ben Robinson, adding that, "the socially distant filming and recording is blended seamlessly into a deliciously familiar narrative about the Donati clan, whose desperation is made all the more palpable when dropped into the circumstances in which all of us are currently living." With the convenience of the stream-on-demand model, this unique production of Gianni Schicchi offers an easy, low-barrier way to access one of the treasures of the operatic repertoire.

At a time when most theaters are not able to present live performances, Opera Ithaca is offering the perfect antidote to pandemic-weary arts lovers. "Opera Ithaca is committed to making Gianni Schicchi accessible to everyone," says Robinson, "and we would like to see this exciting medium of film reach a completely new audience and revolutionize what it means to present modern, cutting-edge opera theatre."

The cast includes Opera Ithaca veterans Dennis Jesse in the title role, renowned soprano Emily Pulley in her role debut as Zita, Elena Galván as Lauretta, Daniel Bates as Rinuccio, and Steven Stull as Simone. Nicholas Davis makes his company debut as Betto. The work was directed by Opera Ithaca Artistic Director Ben Robinson, with Christopher Zemliauskas as conductor. The opera's audio project design was led by Benjamin Costello and the project was co-directed and edited by David Kossack, of PhotoSynthesis Productions.

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