Puccini was always adamant in his preference for all three of the one-act operas that comprise Il trittico to be performed together. That’s how they are in this 2007 Modena production. From the start he had recognized the essential synergy of the brilliant contrasts of melodrama, sentiment and comedy when the trio is presented as an entity across a single evening. Many producers, daunted by a very long evening, made even longer by extended intervals necessary for the changing of very different sets, have been tempted into splitting and pairing them with other short operas. In this Modena production Amarilli Nizza appears in all three operas; as the faithless wife Giorgetta in Il tabarro, as Suor Angelica and as Gianni Schicchi’s daughter Lauretta. Alberto Mastromarino is the jealous husband, Michele in Il tabarro and as Gianni Schicchi.
