After 35 years, Puccini's most ambitious masterpiece returns to the Liceu

Puccini can be viewed as the engineer who, by completing the bridge Verdi had begun, connected Italian tradition directly with modernity. In his last works (of which Il Trittico is one), he anticipates the more modern forms of Debussy or Strauss.

Puccini sets his own personal seal on each of these operatic gems: a thriller set on the banks of the Seine (Il tabarro), the suffering, death and glorification of a nun whose child has been taken from her (Suor Angelica), and a humorous satire about a will which the relatives try to change by impersonating the deceased (Gianni Schicchi).

These three one-act operas seem unconnected. But are they? Giacomo Puccini assembled them under the title Il trittico (the triptych) and they are facets of a single reality. Instead of making a vain attempt to portray the whole world in a long opera, as in an epic novel, he selects three events and brings them together in a work of music which seeks to convey every shade of human emotion with intensity: from implacable coldness of heart to burning passion, via avarice, artfulness or parody.

Lotte de Beer's production from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich offers us an incomparable show in which the action unfolds in a single space enclosed by curved walls and the three scores are linked together by the idea of death. Her excellent stage direction makes all the characters shine. The luxury cast, including Lise Davidsen, Ermonela Jaho, Ambrogio Maestri, Daniela Barcellona and Ruth Iniesta, will make this Trittico one of the season's highlights.

Il tabarro
Opera in one act 
Libretto by  Giuseppe Adami 
World premiere: 14/12/1918 at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York 
Barcelona premiere 21/12/1948 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu
Last Liceu performance: 3/7/2014, in concert version
Total number of Liceu performances: 15 

Suor Angelica
Opera in one act 
Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
World premiere: 14/12/1918 at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York
Barcelona premiere 21/12/1948 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu
Last Liceu performance 4/7/2014
Total number of Liceu performances: 21 

Gianni Schicchi
Opera in one act 
Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano   
World premiere: 14/12/1918 at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York   
Barcelona premiere 21/12/1948 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu 
Last Liceu performance 10/11/1987  
Total number of Liceu performances: 14