Suor Angelica is a heart-rending story of a young mother separated from her illegitimate child by her aristocratic family and confined to a convent. One of Puccini’s rawest creations, the opera takes us on an extraordinary emotional journey.
The story of Suor Angelica
When she is forced by her family to join a convent, Angelica’s life is reduced to the confines of its walled garden. In this rose-scented cage, she is tormented by the love and life she was robbed of. Doubt consumes her as she questions her faith and tries to forgive herself and her family. A moment of crisis comes when she is visited by her aunt carrying devastating news of her son.
The score of Suor Angelica
In Puccini’s profoundly moving score, the opera captures the searching, questioning nature of grief and the possibility or impossibility of forgiveness. Indeed the aria ‘Senza mamma’ (‘Sweetest love, you died without your mother’), is one of the most poignant Puccini ever wrote.