Il Trittico (Il Tabarro / Suor Angelica / Gianni Schicchi)

Il Tabarro
Opera in one act (1918)
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami
Based on the play La Houppelande (1910) by Didier Gold

Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi
Operas in one act (1918)
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto in Italian by Giovacchino Forzano

Musical Direction
Beatrice Venezi
Carlos Vieu

Stage Direction
Pier Francesco Maestrini

Set and Video Design
Nicolás Boni

Co-Video Design – Suor Angelica
Matías Otálora

Costume Design
Stefania Scaraggi

Lighting
Daniele Naldi

Assistant Stage Director
Michele Cosentino

Assistant Costume Designer
Paolo Vitale

Teatro Colón Orchestra
Teatro Colón Choir
Conductor – Miguel Martínez

Cast

Suor Angelica

Anna Princeva (May 02, 04, 08 & 13)
María Belén Rivarola (May 07, 09 & 11)

The Princess Aunt (La Zía Principessa)

Guadalupe Barrientos (May 02, 04, 08 & 13)
Alejandra Malvino (May 07, 09 & 11)

The Abbess (La Abadesa)

María Luján Mirabelli (May 02, 04, 08 & 13)
Cecilia Díaz (May 07, 09 & 11)

Plot

A convent of nuns near Siena in the second half of the 17th century.

The sisters sing hymns. The novice mistress explains that this is the first of three evenings each year when the setting sun reaches the fountain, turning its water golden. This reminds the sisters of the late Sister Bianca Rosa. Sister Genoveva suggests pouring some of the golden water over her grave.

The nuns speak about their wishes. Sister Genoveva confesses that she longs to see lambs again, as she was once a shepherdess. Sister Dolcina wishes for something good to eat. Suor Angelica claims she has no wishes, but as soon as she says this, the other nuns begin to whisper. She has lied—her true desire is to hear news of her wealthy and noble family, from whom she has not received word in seven years. Rumors say she was sent to the convent as punishment. She lives in sorrowful exile under her family’s orders, who disapproved of a relationship in which she bore a child she deeply longs for. Suor Angelica resents the aunt who caused her confinement and devotes herself to tending the convent’s flowers.

The infirmary sister asks Suor Angelica to prepare an herbal remedy. Supplies arrive at the convent, along with news that a grand carriage is waiting outside. Suor Angelica becomes anxious and sorrowful, hoping that someone from her family has come to visit her. The abbess scolds her and leaves to announce the visitor—Princess, Suor Angelica’s aunt.

The Princess explains that Suor Angelica’s younger sister is getting married—something almost unthinkable after the scandal of Angelica’s pregnancy. She brings a document that Suor Angelica must sign, renouncing her inheritance. Angelica replies that she has repented, but she cannot forget the child who was taken from her seven years ago. The Princess refuses to speak further, but ultimately reveals that her son died of a fever two years earlier. Suor Angelica, devastated, signs the document and faints in tears as the Princess departs.

Alone at dusk, Suor Angelica prays and envisions her son. She feels drawn into a celestial vision, believing she hears her child calling her to reunite with him in Paradise. In a moment of rapture, she prepares a potion, only to realize it is poison—suicide, a mortal sin that would prevent her from reuniting with her son. She begs the Virgin Mary for mercy, and at the moment of her death, a miracle occurs. Everything around her transforms into a mystical, consoling vision, crowned by the presence of the Virgin Mary and her child, who come to take her to Paradise.