A moving human story that, through its music, touches people straight in the heart is told by Giacomo Puccini in his opera “Gianni Schicchi.” Contrasts and unexpected turns will captivate the audience on Sunday evening, October 5, at 7 p.m., in the hall of the Ruse Opera House.
След пет години отново в афиша на Държавна опера – Русе, е една рядко изпълнявана оперна творба, поставена от румънската режисьорка Mihaela Panainte с много страст и дълбоки послания за ценностите в живота.
I’m glad to see you again at the Ruse State Opera. I remember clearly when you staged Gianni Schicchi in 2020. During the pandemic, the opera’s premiere was a symbol of hope and survival through art. Now, what will be the message of this performance?
I am truly honored to return to the Ruse State Opera. Here, I feel at home. I consider all my colleagues at the Ruse Opera Theatre to be part of my family. I am grateful to the director, Mr. Plamen Beykov, for inviting me to bring to life this opera, which is so dear to me. I believe the message remains the same – in a corrupt, grotesque world, in a contemporary Dantean hell in which we live, perhaps only love, friendship, and kindness can still give our lives meaning.
Премиерата на „Gianni Schicchi“ се състоя на сцената на Доходно здание. Този път обаче тя ще бъде изпълнена на нефункциониращата пълноценно сцена на Операта. Защо направихте този избор?
The Ruse Opera is truly a special space, filled with history and cultural significance. Only here could I bring Gianni Schicchi to the stage in all its expressive power and emotional intensity. Unfortunately, this building – a historic heritage site – is in a serious state of decay, a ruin that, in a disturbing and ironic way, reflects the moral and human decline of the family in Puccini’s opera, which, in a much broader sense, represents the world we live in.
How do you cope with the difficulties arising from the unfavorable conditions of the unrestored stage?
With a lot of imagination, creativity, and especially an exceptional team of people – the technical staff, lighting crew, technicians, who are incredible, the soloists, the entire team of the Ruse State Opera. Only people can change the world! In our case, this magnificent Opera House exists solely because a handful of devoted professionals dedicate their lives to the art.
You are clearly very engaged with the situation of the Ruse State Opera. How do you envision its future?
I believe it is essential to save the Ruse State Opera. The city needs this cultural space, and its heritage must not be neglected. It is time for the local authorities and the Ministry of Culture to take action to initiate a serious restoration process. I notice that the opera’s management aims to create a more professional and high-performing environment, but it certainly needs financial support. Renovating the opera cannot happen without a budget, and artistic performance depends on funding. I hope that the opera’s management will find support from both the authorities and the ministry—they should not be left alone, like a boat in the middle of the sea...
Gianni Schicchi is Puccini’s only comic opera. Let us laugh at the demons within us. Is this the path to a purifying forgiveness?
Now I recall the text written at the entrance to Dante’s Hell in the Divine Comedy, one of the most famous and disturbing inscriptions in world literature. These are the lines for the 'Gate of Hell' in Canto III, which will also be included in my production:
"Through me the way into the suffering city;
Through me the way to the eternal pain;
Through me the way that runs among the lost.
Justice urged on my high artificer;
My maker was divine authority,
The highest wisdom, and the primal love.
Before me nothing but eternal things
Were made, and I endure eternally.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
The character Gianni Schicchi is not an invention of Puccini, but a real figure mentioned by Dante in Inferno, Canto XXX of the Divine Comedy. There, Schicchi is condemned to eternal torment for impersonating the recently deceased nobleman Buoso Donati and dictating a false will to seize part of the inheritance. Dante portrays him as a deceiver, but Puccini turns him into a charming antihero. In the comic opera Gianni Schicchi, the same story is treated with humor and irony: a cunning man tricks a greedy family in order to secure a dowry for his daughter, which she deserves for her marriage. Thus, what was considered a sin in the Divine Comedy becomes a spicy farce – a playful critique of hypocrisy and human greed. Instead of a curse, Schicchi is met with applause.
What do you think could happen to a society that closes its eyes to its own wounds?
Both Dante and Puccini, each in their own way, warn us that a society that refuses to acknowledge its sins, wounds, and hypocrisies risks self-destruction—whether in the fire of divine justice, as Dante envisions, or in the absurdity of its own corruption, as Puccini shows us.
In The Divine Comedy, Dante constructs a clear moral universe in which every unspoken or unresolved sin leads to eternal damnation. Hell is filled with souls who refused to acknowledge their wrongdoings, who lied, stole, and betrayed, and who now pay the price. There is no room for excuses. Ignoring evil does not make it disappear; it fixes it forever.
Meanwhile, Gianni Schicchi brings a different kind of critique. Behind the humor and farce lies a world obsessed with inheritance, a world full of lies and deceit. A society in which no one is truly innocent, yet everyone pretends to be. Schicchi merely holds up the mirror for them.
They say that in order for something to be reborn, it must first be completely destroyed. What do you think?
In the Divine Comedy, Dante passes through Hell not to be lost, but to be purified. Only by confronting humanity’s and his own darkest sins can he ultimately achieve salvation. For him, destruction is not the end, but a painful and necessary stage of transformation.
In Gianni Schicchi, Puccini presents a corrupt, hypocritical society ready to falsify morality for money. Everything collapses into lies and manipulation, yet amid the chaos something genuine emerges: the love between Rinuccio and Lauretta. True rebirth does not come from “rightness,” but from a simple, human truth that survives in a world full of farce.
Greed and money can destroy love. Yet in reality, none of us take anything with us when we leave this world. So why are we so attached to material things at the expense of life’s true values?
Greed and money can destroy love. In Puccini’s opera, we see an entire family trample on heart and dignity for the sake of an inheritance. Lies, hypocrisy, and deceit are chosen over truth. Yet the only authentic bond in the whole story—the love between Rinuccio and Lauretta—is threatened precisely by this pursuit of wealth. Where generosity should reign, we see calculation. Where love should be free, a condition arises: “only if she receives the dowry.”
In The Divine Comedy, Dante places greed at the heart of Hell, among the gravest sins that not only demean a person but also estrange them from what is truly valuable. Those obsessed with wealth are no longer capable of love, forgiveness, or living fully.
And yet, we all know that we take nothing with us. So why do we cling so tightly to material things? Perhaps it is fear. True values - love, trust, truth - demand courage, vulnerability, and responsibility. Meanwhile, money and possessions offer the illusion of control. But it is only an illusion. Artists, from Dante to Puccini, make it clear that anything built on greed is doomed to fail.
Само това, което е изградено върху истина и любов, устоява.
Interview by Diana Dimitrova
Mihaela Panainte is a theater and opera director who trained at the “George Dima” Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, where she first studied classical singing and later specialized in musical theater directing. Her artistic journey began in her teenage years with vocal lessons at the Arts High School in Bacău, followed by studies at the “Dinu Lipatti” Music High School in Bucharest.
Over the years, Michaela has built a rich and diverse professional path, directing productions in both theater and opera, in Romania and on the international stage.
Her style is characterized by an interdisciplinary and often unconventional approach, where literary text, non-traditional spaces, and physical expression intertwine to create intense and thought-provoking stage visions.
Among her most significant productions are La Bohème (State Opera Odesa, Ukraine), Mefistofele and Gianni Schicchi (National Opera Ruse, Bulgaria), Cavalleria Rusticana (Hungarian Opera Cluj-Napoca), The Human Voice by Francis Poulenc (Transit House, Cluj-Napoca), Yona by Marin Sorescu (Turda Salt Mine), The Trial by Franz Kafka (National Theatre Cluj-Napoca), Nadirs after Herta Müller (Vasile Alecsandri National Theatre, Iași), The Book of Adults by Silády Domokos (Hungarian Theatre Cluj-Napoca), as well as experimental works such as Medio Monte (Artists’ Colony, Baia Mare) and Bizarre Scenes, inspired by Urmuz (Western Theatre Reșița).
In contemporary theatre, she has directed works such as Lost Relatives (Rude Pierdute) by Nava Semel (a co-production of the State Jewish Theatre Bucharest and Art Theatre Deva), Sisi, an adaptation of the book by Pavel Șușară (Băile Herculane), and The King, the Rat, and the King’s Jester by Matei Vișniec.
In 2024, Mihaela directed a multimedia production of In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka, produced at the Goethe-Institut Bucharest.
In parallel with her directing work, she also collaborates in the creative process of Eden, a project by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, at Bozar Art, Brussels.
Photo: State Opera Ruse
