Il Trittico in Full Score: Il Tabarro / Suor Angelica / Gianni Schicchi

by Giacomo Puccini

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.

Paperback

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

An Italian composer, son of Michele Puccini and fifth in a line of composers from Lucca. After studying music with his uncle, Fortunato Magi, and with the director of the Insituto Musicale Pacini, Carlo Angeloni, he started his career at the age of fourteen as an organist of St. Martino and St. Michele, Lucca, and at other local churches. However, a performance of Verdi's Aida at Pisa in 1876 made such an impression on him he decided to become an opera composer. With a scholarship and financial support from an uncle, he was able to enter the Milan Conservatory in 1880. During his three years there, his chief teachers were Bazzini and Ponchielli.

Punccini's best known operas are: Le villi (1884), Edgar (1889), Manon Lescaut (1893), La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), La fanciulla del West (1910), La rondine (1917), "Il trittico" and Turandot (1926).

During the composition of Turandot, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and died after receiving treatment in Brussles. Turandot, was left unfinished, but was completed by Franco Alfano.

Reviews

[Bernardo Henríquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luego de ver Mr. Bean's Holiday y recordar el aria O mio babbino caro, busqué de qué ópera venía y encontré Gianni Schicchi, la tercera de esta colección de tres óperas compuestas por Puccini.

La serie consiste de dos óperas serias y una bufa. Mi favorita, lógicamente fue Schicchi por la trama graciosa, la voz del protagonista y cómo acompaña la orquesta los diálogos. Viendo que es una ópera de principios del s. XX, es entendible que la instrumentación y la armonía sean tan avanzadas, pero es bien chévere saber que para esta época se compusieron óperas.