SYNOPSIS

Set in a seventeenth-century convent, Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica follows a young nun who has spent seven years in seclusion after being forced to abandon her illegitimate child. When her aristocratic aunt arrives to demand that Angelica renounce her inheritance, she also reveals that the child died two years earlier. Overcome by grief, Angelica takes her own life, only to realize in her final moments that suicide may have separated her from the son she longs to see again. In the opera’s transcendent conclusion, a vision of the Virgin Mary and the child offers Angelica forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.

This production reimagines that final hour of grief as something closer to memory itself — a life relived in its last moments, suspended between what was lived and what was lost.

MUSIC BY

Giacomo Puccini

LIBRETTO BY

Giovacchino Forzano

LOCATION

The Sam, at the Flea Theater

20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007

SUNG IN

Italian with English Supertitles

RUNNING TIME

Suor Angelica runs for approximately 55 minutes and is presented together with Jefferson Lives!, with one 20-minute intermission.

Total running time for the double bill is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes.

ACCESSIBILITY

The Flea and all Teatro Grattacielo productions are wheelchair accessible and disability-friendly. Please contact us in advance for any specific accommodation needs.

Director’s Statement

Puccini himself ends Suor Angelica in hallucination — as Angelica dies, reality dissolves into a vision of the Virgin Mary and her son, a moment where the borders of the real are already breaking down. This production takes that blurring, which Puccini reserved for the final minutes, and extends it across the entire opera. Rather than unfolding as a linear convent drama, the piece becomes the interior world of a dying woman, her whole life relived in the space of an hour.

Angelica remains fixed in a single, isolated bed — the only solid, unmoving reality on stage — while every other figure she has ever known returns to her as a ghost: the sisters of her convent, the rituals of her daily life, the aunt who brings her ruin, the child she was made to give up. Staged entirely in black and white, populated by figures who are present and absent at once, this production asks what it means to spend one’s final hour not living, but remembering — and whether the line between memory, hallucination, and grace was ever as fixed as it seems.

Venue Accessibility: Our performance venues are fully wheelchair accessible with step-free entry and accessible restrooms. Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are available at the theater for patrons who require sound amplification.

Programmatic Accommodations:

• Captions: All performances feature English supertitles.

• Materials: Large-print programs are available at the box office upon request.

How to Request Additional Accommodations: If you require specific accommodations not listed above (such as sign language interpretation, sighted guides, or specific seating arrangements), please contact us in advance so we can ensure the best possible experience for you.

Contact for Requests: Please direct all accessibility inquiries to our Section 504 Coordinator, Stefanos Koroneos
Email: stefanoskoroneos@grattacielo.org
(We kindly ask that requests for specific services be made at least 2 weeks prior to the performance date.)