| Il trittico | |
|---|---|
| Triptych of one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini | |
 The composer | |
| Language | Italian |
| Premiere | |
Il trittico (The Triptych ) is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro , Suor Angelica , and Gianni Schicchi , by Giacomo Puccini. The work received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918.
Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, largely because of the success of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana . [1] Originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dante's Divine Comedy . However, he eventually based only Gianni Schicchi on Dante's epic poem. [2] The link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death.
Puccini also intended that the three should be performed as a set, and wrote to Casa Ricordi to complain about their giving permission in 1920 to The Royal Opera, London, "for Tabarro and Schicchi without Angelica". He reluctantly agreed that the two operas could be given in a programme with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes , but when he heard that Il tabarro had also been dropped, he wrote to his friend Sybil Seligman to say "I very much dislike Trittico being given in bits – I gave permission for two operas, and not one, in conjunction with the Russian Ballet." [3]
Today, it is quite common to see only one or two of the trittico operas performed in an evening, and sometimes one of them may be paired with another one-act opera by a different composer.
The operas premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918. The critical reviews for Il trittico were mixed; most critics agreed that Gianni Schicchi was the best of the three operas. [4]
Il trittico premiered in Rome on 11 January 1919. Puccini, who had not been present for the New York premiere, attended the production at the Rome Opera House. The Rome production, especially Gianni Schicchi, received positive reviews. Later that year, the triptych was staged at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (25 June) with Tullio Serafin conducting and in Chicago (6 December). After these initial premieres, most opera companies began to perform the operas separately; Gianni Schicchi would eventually become the most frequently performed of the set. [5]
A critically acclaimed production at the Metropolitan Opera opened on 20 April 2007, directed by Jack O'Brien and was broadcast on television by PBS's Great Performances at the Met series. [6] In this production Il tabarro was moved from 1910 to 1927, Suor Angelica was moved from the 17th century to 1938, and Gianni Schicchi was moved from 1299 to 1959. [7]
A complete synopsis of each opera may be found in their individual articles
The opera is dark and brooding, with the violence and grit associated with verismo opera.
This second opera, Puccini's personal favorite [8] (but usually the one to be omitted if only two of the operas are performed), is an uplifting tale of religious redemption.
The third opera is the most popular, a farce full of greed and conniving.
Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late-Baroque era. Though his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-19th-century Romantic Italian opera, he later developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.
Mary Ellis was an American actress and singer appearing on stage, radio, television and film, best known for her musical theatre roles, particularly in Ivor Novello works. After appearing with the Metropolitan Opera beginning in 1918, she acted on Broadway, creating the title role in Rose-Marie. In 1930, she emigrated to England, where she gained additional fame and continued to perform into the 1990s. She also became known for film roles, including in The 3 Worlds of Gulliver in 1960.
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.
Cycle has several meanings in the field of music. Acoustically, it refers to one complete vibration, the base unit of Hertz being one cycle per second. Theoretically, an interval cycle is a collection of pitch classes created by a sequence of identical intervals. Individual pieces that aggregate into larger works are considered cycles, for example, the movements of a suite, symphony, sonata, or string quartet. This definition can apply to everything from settings of the Mass or a song cycle to an opera cycle. Cycle also applies to the complete performance of an individual composer's work in one genre.
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico. The first performance was given on December 14, 1918, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico – three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together. Although it continues to be performed with one or both of the other trittico operas, Gianni Schicchi is now more frequently staged either alone or with short operas by other composers. The aria "O mio babbino caro" is one of Puccini's best known, and one of the most popular arias in opera.
Stephanie Blythe is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international career in operas and concerts since the early 1990s. She is particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, with whom she has performed annually since her debut with the company in 1995. In 2014 she starred as Gertrude Stein in the world premiere of 27, an opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon with libretto by Royce Vavrek, and commissioned for her by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
Giuseppe Patanè was an Italian opera conductor.
Joan Pons Álvarez is a Spanish operatic baritone, known internationally as Juan Pons. He is most famous for his Verdi roles.
Union Avenue Opera is an opera company based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded in 1994 by Scott Schoonover, the music director of Union Avenue Christian Church, which serves as the company's venue in St. Louis' Visitation Park neighborhood.
Phyllis Rosina Raisbeck MBE was an Australian opera and concert soprano and mezzo-soprano singer. Her fine voice was basically a dramatic mezzo, with a warm middle register supporting strong top notes.
Carlo Galeffi was a leading Italian baritone, particularly associated with the operatic works of Giuseppe Verdi and the various verismo composers.
Giovacchino Forzano was an Italian playwright, librettist, stage and film director. A resourceful writer, he authored numerous popular plays and produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.
This is a list of the recordings of Gianni Schicchi, the third of a group of three one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini collectively known as Il trittico; the other operas are Il tabarro and Suor Angelica. The three were premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918, and for the next three years were always played together. After 1921, however, Puccini agreed that the operas could be performed separately. Gianni Schicchi became the most popular and most frequently performed of the three, often paired with other works such as Maurice Ravel's L'heure espagnole and Richard Strauss's Salome.
Marie Berg Tiffany was an American operatic soprano. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, New York City, from 1916 to 1928; making 208 appearances at the Met throughout her career. She created roles in several world premieres at the Met and was the only performer to appear in all three one act operas at the premiere of Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico in 1918.
Amarilli Nizza is an Italian operatic soprano.
Louis D'Angelo was an American bass-baritone of Italian birth who was particularly known for his performances at the Metropolitan Opera during the first half of the 20th century. He created roles in the world premieres of seven operas at the Met, including Marco in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi in 1917.
Schicchi was a medieval knight of Florence in the thirteenth century. His life, including his crime of fraud by being a talented imposter, is detailed by Dante in the Inferno, which inspired a Puccini opera and a later play. Dante's depiction of Schicchi's eternal punishment with insanity in hell inspired a painting by Bouguereau.
Elza van den Heever is a South African soprano in opera and concert, who began her career as a mezzo-soprano. She has appeared in leading roles at major houses and concert halls of the world. One of her signature roles is Elisabetta in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, which she performed for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 and subsequently recorded live.
Ana Victória Pitts is a Brazilian mezzo-soprano who has performed internationally.
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