Il Trittico: Three is more than enough!

Keeping three plots and three sets of music straight in my head has proven to be problematic. I say this for a number of reasons. First, several weeks ago, I ventured to attend Elektra, Les Contes d'Hoffman and Il Trittico within the space of several days. Thinking and writing about all three proved to be too much. Il Trittico fell through the cracks. Then, of course, I had to keep straight in my head the three tales of Hoffman which luckily do have unifying features. Il Trittico's three stories do not. In fact, over the years, the practice has been to perform only one or two of the Il Trittico segments at a time or to pair Il Trittico segments with other operas. Even Puccini apparently did not envisage the same soprano singing all three. So, there is a long history with this opera of three being more than enough.