Radio Times: Review by:; David Butcher

If you haven’t heard of Il Trittico, that’ll be because it is not often revived. In 2011, the Royal Opera House produced Puccini’s trio of one-act operas for the first time in nearly half a century, and to some acclaim (“Il Trittico does not come better than this,” enthused one critic).

The idea of “the triptych” is to collate three different stories of early 20th-century life, each with its own mood. This much is set out for us by ROH musical director (and renowned Puccini interpreter) Antonio Pappano in an introduction. Then we launch into the whole of the first opera, Il Tabarro, a brooding tale of Parisian quayside life, in which a bargeman’s wife takes refuge from misery in a passionate affair with a dock-worker. It doesn’t end well.

About this programme

1/3. Puccini's operatic triptych, beginning with Il Tabarro - The Cloak - a dramatic tale set on a barge on the banks of the Seine, where an unusually dark version of the classic operatic love triangle is played out. Introduced by Antonio Pappano, who also conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Starring Eva-Maria Westbroek as Giorgetta, and directed for the stage by Richard Jones.