Opera Background
Il Trittico: Opera BackgroundIl Trittico
Puccini’s trilogy of contrasting one-act operas was a long time in the making. The idea first occurred to Puccini in 1900, right after the premiere of Tosca, but his powerful publisher Ricordi argued against it. After composing Madama Butterfly in 1904, Puccini envisioned a night of one-acts based on the stories of Maxim Gorky, bard of the Russian underworld. Puccini was drawn to Gorky’s tales about Russia’s poor, but couldn’t find a story that struck him as dramatic enough for the evening’s finale.
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