(San Francisco Opera, September 2009)
A triptych is a work of art divided into three parts (from the Greek τρίπτυχο, from tri- "three" + ptychē "fold"). In European-derived cultures it is traditionally associated with religious subjects, the centerpiece of which provides the focal point. Many triptychs were constructed as tabernacles, or a set of paintings with hinged wings which could be closed to hide and protect the images inside. Puccini's Il Trittico is just this sort of triptych, unfolding its lyrical wings to expose the hidden connection between its three seemingly disparate operas.
Il Trittico comprises three consecutively composed one-act operas: Il Tabarro (The Cape), a violent tale of romantic and social disappointment among the working poor; Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica), the heart-wrenching centerpiece focused on a submissive birthmother who is sent to a convent; and the famous Gianni Schicchi, a social farce set in the medieval Florence of Dante Alighieri.
Puccini's chosen framework, the triptych, suggests that the work should be viewed from a religious or spiritual perspective. We know that Puccini composed each piece consecutively, and that he was adamantly opposed to their being performed separately. The plays of the Grand Guignol, in contrast, were presented for the sole intent of viscerally appalling the audience using shock value even to the point that the success of an evening's fare was registered by how many people in the audience fainted. While Puccini is often accused of gratuitous sentimentalism (which might be compared to the gratuitous sensationalism of Le Grand Guignol), I would argue that the plays in Il Trittico are not at all gratuitous, but rather form a cohesive picture Puccini very deliberately wanted to draw.
My impression was that Giorgetta married Michele, who is twice her age, to improve her social lot. She was initially happy with her new station and her baby, but once the baby died, so did Giorgetta's enthusiasm for her marriage. Young and lusty, bored with her old but loving husband, she bides her time from tryst to tryst with her dockworker. Michele is hard-working, adoring and jealous. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
So what place does The Cloak play in this triptych? It is the presentation of triptych as tabernacle, a narrative cloak that opens up to reveal its icons. The cloak opens and we have the starting point, humanity at its animalistic core: scrounging survival on the primordial banks of a dirty, watery world. The elder Michele once used to cloak to protect, to gather in the family. By the end of the opera he uses it to hide and then disclose his dirty work, that of eliminating his competitor. The curtain closes on his cloak's revelation: a silverback has defended his territory.
The centerpiece of the Triptych, Suor Angelica, takes place in an overtly religious setting, a convent, which invokes images of the Madonna, sacrifice, and the pain of a lost son, a symbol of Christ. Sister Angelica is a birthmother who has been banished from her upper class family to the convent after surrendering her child to adoption. When the story opens it has been seven years since she gave birth and she has resigned herself to her convent life, becoming an adept gardener and herbalist. Her aunt visits her to get her to sign away her inheritance rights, and while there, the aunt shames Angelica for dishonoring the family. Angelica begs the aunt for news of her son and the aunt tells her that he is dead. Angelica crumbles, signs the aunt's papers, and proceeds to poison herself. Realizing that she is committing a sin by committing suicide, Angelica prays to the Virgin Mary to forgive her, to deliver her, and to show her a sign of her forgiveness. The final scene is Sister Angelica's dying vision of a small boy inviting her to heaven. Sinner and saint, the lost and the redeemed: these comprise the center panel of the triptych in Suor Angelica.
The final panel in the series is the most famous, Puccini's social comedy Gianni Schicchi. The scene opens with the extended Donati family hovering over the dead body of wealthy family elder, Buoso. Rinuccio, one of the sons, wants to marry the lower-class daughter of Gianni Schicchi, and he tries to bribe a relative into allowing this if the dead man's will is favorable to her. As it turns out, his will leaves everything to a local monastery and all the relatives gnash their teeth in anger, curse the dead man, and refuse to let Rinuccio marry his lower-class beloved. In their greedy desperation, they finally allow Rinuccio to talk them into allowing Gianni Schicchi to come over and figure out a way to change Buoso's will in their favor. One of Puccini's most beautiful arias, "O mio babbino caro" is sung by Lauretta as she tries to cajole her father into helping Rinuccio's revolting relatives. Schicchi agrees and sends his daughter away so that she will be innocent of what he is about to do. What follows is a comedy of errors in which the greedy relatives get their comeuppance and the young lovers prevail. The triptych closes on an upbeat. The unrepentant sinners have been punished, the repentant have been redeemed, and the innocent have their lives ahead of them.
Why would Puccini have so wanted these three operas to be performed together? They do form a cohesive unit, not only as a triptych depicting different types of sinners, their punishments and penances, but also as a narrative of Puccini's attitude towards these things. The first two operas feature "fallen women", both of whom have lost children, the last two feature ambivalent and controversial attitudes towards the Church. In the course of the evening we are transported from the primitive to the sublime to the ridiculous. Ending the series with a comedic farce suggests that there is some sin so banal that it only worth ridicule. One could track the seven deadly sins or the ten commandments through Il Trittico to get a better idea of Puccini's vision in Il Trittico. I've included links to the libretti below in case anyone is interested in doing a more in depth study of this matter.
Is the triptych a commentary on Catholicism's Madonna-whore complex? The centerpiece, the only piece with an overtly religious theme, shows a birthmother as Madonna, with the promise of her lost Christ child returning at the end to redeem her. The whore Giorgetta and the virgin Lauretta flank the centerpiece of this triptych, Suor Angelica, a true tragic figure who represents both.
Libretti
Il Tabarro
Suor Angelica
Gianni Schicchi
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