Suor Angelica - London ColiseumA convent is home to various nuns, novices, and an assortment of newly arrived unmarried pregnant women. They go about their chores and discuss their mortal desires, but Sister Angelica claims to have none except a wish to serve the Blessed Virgin. Others in disbelief begin gossiping about the widely circulated story that she belonged to an aristocratic family who deposited her at the convent seven years before, to atone for a great sin.
With the sudden and unexpected arrival of her aunt (who is sometimes depicted as a Princess but who here is denoted a Baroness — emulating Eleanor Parker’s turn in The Sound of Music) we learn that since the death of Angelica’s parents, the Baroness has served as guardian. Now that she has found a man who has generously agreed to overlook the scandal and shame of Angelica’s unwedded pregnancy and marry her younger sister, documents must be signed to transfer inheritance and ensure a dowry. During their conversation, Angelica asks for news of her son and is distraught to learn that he died from an illness two years before. After her aunt’s departure and in maternal distress, Angelica bids farewell to the walls of the convent and having prepared a poisoned draught, consumes it. Almost immediately, her stupor is shattered by the realisation that suicide is a mortal sin which will ensure her damnation and eternal separation from her child. In her anguish she pleads with the Virgin Mary for forgiveness and to be reconciled with her son, who then appears to her as she lays dying.
Purported to be one of Puccini’s personal favourites, the piece is perhaps the least performed of the triptych, but the production affords Wexford-born Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace plenty of scope to shine in the title role, and whilst she may not eclipse the sheer motherly majesty of Renata Scotto’s definitive delivery of Oh My Baby, You Died Without Me (Senza Mamma) she certainly conveys power and passionate intensity. Mezzo Christine Rice, demonstrates stillness and acting chops, assuming a regal air as the Baroness. Dressed akin to the late Queen (when adorned in Hardy Amies apparel), she is the perfect stilted counterpoint to her niece’s pent-up emotion. Other notables in the virtually all-female cast, were Alexandra Oomens as Genevieve (Sister Genovieffa) and Sarah-Jane Lewis’s cake-eating comedic turn as Sister Dolcina.
