Salzburg Festival 2022: Il Tabarro

In Il tabarro (‘The Cloak’), surrounded by the decaying miasma of the river Seine, we have arrived in purgatory on earth. Puccini sets the piece in the present day, in Paris, in a realistic, Simenon-like milieu of stevedores, drinkers, and whores. In an oppressive atmosphere of hopelessness a love triangle arises between Giorgetta, her husband - the barge owner Michele - and his stevedore Luigi. Giorgetta is a woman with a history: she’s a mother who has lost a child and whose marriage is on the verge of breakdown. She starts an affair with Luigi, which gives her a momentary escape from the bleakness of her everyday life… Il tabarro fathoms the entire unremitting darkness of human existence. “Grigorian’s final scene, which milks the unexpected poignancy of her simply changing in front of us from her habit into a sleek black cocktail dress and letting down her hair, is just as wrenching.” The New York Times