Puccini's Il Trittico

Antonio Pappano introduces and conducts this one-act opera by Puccini at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The first in a trilogy of short operas by Puccini, Il Tabarro - The Cloak - is a dark passionate opera with a love triangle at its core and is set on a barge on the banks of the river Seine. Directed for the stage by Richard Jones and featuring an international cast, Eva-Maria Westbroek is Giorgetta, Lucio Gallo is her husband Michele and Aleksandrs Antonenko plays the young docker Luigi. At the climax of the opera the cloak reveals its dark secret.

Antonio Pappano introduces and conducts this short one-act opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a tragic tale of love, loss and religious redemption set in 17th-century Sienna, which was Puccini's favourite opera from his trilogy Il Trittico. The setting is a Catholic children's hospital run by nuns, where Sister Angelica has become an expert herbalist creating remedies for the sick. She is much loved yet hiding a deep secret and over the course of the work Puccini gradually tightens the emotional screw. Directed for the stage by Richard Jones with an international cast.

From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano introduces and conducts Puccini's comic masterpiece Gianni Schicchi - the final opera from his trilogy Il Trittico. Set in Florence, the plot is something of a theatrical farce. Wealthy miser Buoso Donati dies, leading to a scramble to find the will and the family members getting their hands on the inheritance. They seek help from local trickster Gianni Schicchi, sung by Lucio Gallo, who outwits everybody. Time seems to stand still when Schicchi's daughter Lauretta sings the famous aria O Mio Babbino Caro. Directed for the stage by Richard Jones