Considered the greatest Italian opera composer since Verdi, Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) created many of the most popular operas in the repertoire, including Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, and Turandot. His well-known gifts for lush melody and rapturous lyricism, along with his strong sense of theater, are amply evident in Il Trittico (“The Triptych”), a series of three highly individual one-act operas patterned after the Parisian Grand Guignol’s three-part scheme of horror, tragedy, and farce. Il Trittico, which premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1918, consists of Il Tabarro, a somber, near-melodramatic tragedy; Suor Angelica,” a sentimental tragedy with strong melodies and a mystic theme; and Gianni Schicchi,” a delightful comedy, full of wit and vivacity, whose libretto was derived—surprisingly enough—from a few lines in Dante’s Inferno. All three works appear in this single volume, reprinted from authoritative early editions.
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