The power of Puccini: Gianni Schicchi and Dante
From Montreal to Florence
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It was a grey wintry afternoon in a 1980s Montreal. The snow was piled high and the streets had developed a dirty sludge, but there, on a street called Sherbrooke, on a towering wall of stairs high above the mess of the street sat the copper-green Queen Victoria, scepter in hand, guarding her pride and joy, McGill University’s School of Music. Behind the grand dame, the medieval-looking stone arches herald the entrance to the auditorium. Undefined sound is stirring. I was a 17-year-old student at the School of Music and I opened the door to the auditorium. The once muffled sound now washes over me, wrapping me in its warmth as I hear a soprano…