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"  Richard Jones&amp;#039; production of Il Trittico, Puccini&amp;#039;s triple bill of one-act operas has returned to Covent Garden proving this triptych to be greater than the sum of its parts.\u00A0Often separated by programmers, the three works are reunited by the Royal Opera \u2013 the evening moving from gritty melodrama to tear-jerking tragedy with the final relief of the repertoire&amp;#039;s funniest work \u2013\u00A0Gianni Schicchi. All three are linked by themes of damnation: In Il Tabarro a husband murders his wife&amp;#039;s lover and brings hell to earth by taunting her with the corpse. In Suor Angelica a suicide begs for divine grace to save her soul. In the Dante-inspired story of Gianni Schicchi our hero commits the eternal sin of forging a will, and accepts his fate nudging and winking all the way to his inferno. But that aside, the three productions share precious little other than some of the singers\u00A0\u2013 most notably Lucio Gallo, the ever excellent Italian character singers Carlo Bosi and Elena Zilio, and company stalwart, the\u00A0bass baritone Jeremy White. It makes for a long evening with two solid intervals.  With the first opera, Il Tabarro, we are taken to a quayside in a claustrophobic quartier of Paris. Streetwalkers are on the corner \u2013 a neon light advertises a clip joint in the background. Sailors sniff around for something to do. A group of stevedores unload a barge. The gang includes Carl Tanner&amp;#039;s sturdy and heroically toned Luigi who happens to be having an affair with his boss Michele&amp;#039;s wife \u2013\u00A0Giorgetta, portrayed with kitchen sink realism by Patricia Racette. We later find out that Michele (played by the\u00A0Italian baritone Lucio Gallo)and Giorgetta have grown apart after the recent death of their baby son. Michele&amp;#039;s reminiscences about how all three used to sleep under the same cloak (tabarro) are given the cold shoulder by Giorgetta who is planning to see Luigi that evening. Michele now suspecting that he has been cuckolded, lies in wait for Luigi before\u00A0murdering\u00A0him, hiding his body under the cloak. Exacting his revenge he reveals the body to Giorgetta.  Suor Angelica is moved from priory to a children&amp;#039;s hospital staffed by an order of sisters, complete with museum piece polio braces and chest supports.\u00A0 Sister Angelica is a fallen aristocrat who has had a child out of wedlock has been banished by her shamed family. After being told by her icy toff of an aunt, (sung here by the Swedish contralto, Anna Larsson) that she must hand over her inheritance to her sister, she discovers that her son has also in the meantime, died. She determines to take her life, but beyond the point of return realises that she will be damned by doing so. She begs the Virgin Mary for salvation and appears to die believing it has been granted. Richard Jones denies us a supernatural ending; leaving us instead with the very earthly humiliating muddle of death \u2013 Angelica confuses one of the patients for her boy who she expects to see in heaven; her fellow sisters cover her body (in a nod to the previous opera) with a plain sheet. Ermonela Jaho sings with painful commitment and left most of the audience reaching for their hankies.  After all this devastation, Gianni Schicchi is met by grateful laughter as a family wait on their inheritance only to find out that it has all been given to the church instead. Schicchi offers to forge the will and pretend to be the\u00A0dying relative Buoso, inserting himself in the new settlement. Lucio Gallo commands as the dishonourable upstart\u00A0Schicchi ,while\u00A0a marvellous group of singer actors\u00A0 are brought together to play the grotesque Donatis.\u00A0 Paolo Fanale particularly impresses with fresh easy tone as Rinuccio, and Susanna Hurrell as his girlfriend Lauretta takes O mio babbino caro in her stride, singing with poise and\u00A0delicate phrasing \u2013\u00A0soothing our frayed nerves after\u00A0an evening of heightened emotion. Il Trittico is on at the Royal Opera House\u00A0(roh.org.uk)\u00A0until 15 March. *** MORE CULTURE Shakespeare 400: a national guide What to book: Romeo and Juliet at Backyard Cinema Introducing the tenor, Paulo Fanale "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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