Il Tabarro  

A barge on the Seine in Paris, early 20th century

Giorgetta, the young wife of much older barge-owner Michele, is having an affair with Luigi, one of the deckhands. Michele needs to let some workers go and suggests, to Giorgetta’s unease, that Luigi be one of them; the conversation turns testy. La Frugola, the wife of Talpa, another of the stevedores, comes to take him home before he drinks too much. Tinca says, and Luigi blurts out he agrees: their life is bleak (“Hai ben ragione”). Frugola dreams for a cottage in the country but Giorgetta’s dream is to move back to the city; she and Luigi sing nostalgically about Belleville, the Paris suburb where they are both from (“È ben altro il mio sogno”).

Michele appears, and Luigi — who can’t bear the thought of Giorgetta with him — asks to be left in Rouen. Giorgetta tells Luigi she will light a match as a signal once Michele has gone to sleep. Michele tries to rekindle Giorgetta’s past love by recalling their happiness before their baby died just the year before, but she rejects him. Once alone, he suspects she is having an affair (“Nulla! Silenzio!”). He lights his pipe, which Luigi mistakes for Giorgetta’s signal. Michele grabs him, forces him to confess, strangles him and conceals the body with his cloak. Giorgetta reappears on deck; Michele, throws open his cloak to expose Luigi’s corpse.

Suor Angelica

A convent in Italy

The opera opens as Sister Angelica and her fellow nuns take part in the life of the convent. But each has a secret longing, and Angelica’s is to hear something, anything, from her aristocratic family who have been silent for seven long years since depositing her at the convent.

A coach arrives with Angelica’s aunt who explains that when Angelica’s parents died, she was made guardian of both her and her younger sister … who is about to be married. The aunt coldly demands that Angelica sign over her share of the inheritance. Crushed, Angelica asks about her son, the illegitimate child who was the reason for her being sent to the convent in the first place. He had fallen ill, her aunt tells her, and died two years ago. A devastated Angelica signs the papers and grieves about the small boy who died alone without his mother (“Senza mamma”).

Angelica, who knows the plants of the convent’s garden, concocts a poison and drinks it, only to remember that suicide is a mortal sin. She prays for forgiveness, and dies with a vision of her son greeting her in heaven.

Gianni Schicchi 

Florence, 1299

Buoso, the patriarch of the wealthy Florentine Donati family, has just died. His family frantically search for the will, which is finally found by the young Rinuccio. But before he’ll hand it over, he demands from his Aunt Zita permission to marry Lauretta, the daughter of Gianni Schicchi, a newcomer to the city. The family is distressed to discover that Buoso left all his money to the monks. Simone, the oldest and a former mayor, says there’s nothing to be done. Rinuccio says that only Gianni Schicchi is astute enough to find a solution. The rest of the family disparage him as a parvenu, but Rinuccio has already sent for him.

Gianni Schicchi arrives with his daughter in tow; after being insulted by Zita, he refuses to help. Lauretta steps in to persuade him (“O mio babbino caro”) because she’s in love with Rinuccio. The doctor arrives and the quick-thinking Gianni Schicchi impersonates Buoso and the doctor is fooled into thinking Buoso is still alive; if Buoso isn’t dead, he can dictate a new will! Gianni Schicchi has the family send for the lawyer.

But in the new will, “Buoso” leaves everything of value to “his good friend” Gianni Schicchi, including the house, from which the family — except for Rinuccio and Lauretta who are holding hands on the balcony — are evicted.