Plot Summary:In the early 1900s, two operas by Richard Strauss (Salome and Elektra) were taking Europe by storm. The Italian composer Puccini is said to have looked at the scores and observed, "There is nothing here but algebra and mathematics; where is the music?" True or not, in any case, Puccini set out to show that he too could compose one-act operas, and in different styles. Hence, Il Trittico (The Tryptich), a set of three operas, each less than an hour long, each different from the other two. The first, Il Tabarro (The Cloak) is a moody, macabre story of a spurned husband determined to discover the man who has seduced his wife away from him, and this is the night he finally learns who that man is. The second opera, Suor Angelica (Sister Angelique) is a frank tear-jerker about a young woman forced into a convent by her aristocratic family after she has given birth to a child out of wedlock. For seven years she has waited for news about him, and on this day, her prayers will be answered. The last opera, Gianni Schicchi, is a cynical comedy of greedy relatives who begin fighting over their dead uncle's will even while the body is still lying on its death-bed. Gianni Schicchi arrives to help them sort out the mess, and he teaches them a much-needed lesson in humility, securing a dowry for his daughter at the same time.
