Work Information
| Work Notes |
Opera in one act. |
Publisher |
G Schirmer Inc |
| Category |
Opera and Music Theatre |
Sub-Category |
Chamber Opera |
| Year Composed |
1982 |
Duration |
1 , 10 |
| Chorus |
women's SSA chorus or 3 soloists |
Solo Instrument(s) |
2 Sopranos, 2 Mezzo Sopranos |
| Orchestration |
fl(pic).cl(bcl)/tpt.btbn/perc/hp.pf/vn.vc |
Languages |
English |
| Availability |
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Programme Note
The opera can be used as a companion to Puccini's Suor Angelica, with complementary cast, orchestra, and duration. - Sister Isabella (a young and beautiful nun) -- soprano
- Abbess Usimbalda (Mother Superior) -- mezzo-soprano
- Sister Ficcanaso (a prying and meddlesome nun) -- soprano
- Sister Sgridaretta (an old and punctilious nun) -- mezzo-soprano
- Three nuns (chorus with solos) -- SSA
- Isabella's lover (disguised) -- mute
A group of nuns in a medieval Italian convent. The postulant, Isabella, has a hard time reconciling the earthy needs of her nature with the vows of her calling. This evokes a hilarious scene of reportage — an accounting of her bedroom activities as seen by the sisters through a keyhole, until it is revealed that the Abbess has similar problems.
Reviews
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Daniel Dibbern's English libretto does considerable justice to the subtleties of Boccaccio's richly human tale...So does the music of Rodríguez...A famous saltarello appears as a recurring theme, distorted in all manner of ingenious ways...His 70-minute opera views the medieval world through 20th-century eyes and ears, and does so colorfully, engagingly, and not too harshly.
Derrick Henry, The Boston Globe
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Suor Isabella is a romp about a group of nuns in a Medieval Italian convent whose earthly 'glorias' occasionally drown out their spiritual 'amens'...Isabella, it seems, has a hard time reconciling the earthly needs of her nature with the vows of her calling, as she relates in her charming aria. This evokes a hilarious scene of reportage of her bedroom activities as seen by the sisters through a keyhole until it transpires that Mother Superior has similar problems. All are resolved with tolerant cynicism of a truly viable faith...It is written tightly, is full of action and genuinely funny.
Patsy Swank, Dallas Downtown News
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