Il tabarro (The Cloak)

After the death of their child a year ago, Giorgetta and Michele have grown apart. They are still living together on Michele’s barge, but Giorgetta is seeking happiness elsewhere: she has fallen in love with Luigi, one of Michele’s labourers. After work, they all drink and dance together. Frugola, the wife of the labourer Talpa, arrives to pick up her husband. Both of them dream of a cottage in the country. Giorgetta and Luigi, on the other hand, long for city life, and plan an assignation that night. Michele suspects that his wife is deceiving him. He catches Luigi as he is coming to see Giorgetta and kills him in a fit of jealous rage.

Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica)

Because she had an illegitimate child, Angelica was forced to enter a convent seven years ago. Ever since, she has lived in the women’s community, cut off from the world. She has heard nothing more of her child. Various customs, rules and rites dominate the women’s daily life. Then a visitor is announced: Angelica’s aunt, the Princess, comes calling. She reports that Angelica’s sister wishes to marry, demanding that Angelica renounce her inheritance in her favour. When Angelica asks after her child, the Princess declares that it has long died of an illness. Angelica breaks down.

Gianni Schicchi

Buoso Donati, a wealthy gentleman, has died. His relatives have gathered, simulating grief and speculating first and foremost about the dead man’s will. When it has finally been found and opened, they are profoundly shocked: Buoso Donati has left his entire fortune to a monastery. His relatives refuse to accept this and wrack their brains for a solution. Young Rinuccio declares that only one man might be able to help them: Gianni Schicchi. His relatives detest the newly-arrived Schicchi family. Rinuccio, however, has fallen in love with Gianni Schicchi’s daughter Lauretta and wants to marry her, a plan his family rejects. Rinuccio summons Gianni Schicchi, who indeed hatches a plan, though the mutual resentment on both sides is obvious: since no one has learned of Buoso Donati’s death, Gianni Schicchi will impersonate the dying Donati, dictating a new will. The relatives praise Schicchi as their saviour, and the plan is put into action. When the notary arrives, Gianni Schicchi has a new will drawn up, impersonating Donati – and against previous agreements, he leaves the most valuable and coveted part of “his” fortune not to the family, but to himself: Gianni Schicchi