Suor Angelica/Trouble in Tahiti

Music by Giacomo Puccini/Leonard Bernstein

IMPOSSIBLE STANDARDS

Premiering in 1918, Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) is the second in a trio of one-act operas known as Il Trittico (The Triptych), and Puccini’s favorite. Written after Puccini made many visits to his sister in a convent, the work is a tragic and intimate window into a woman’s pursuit of redemption. According to the legendary composer, “I always wanted to make people cry, that’s all.”

Trouble in Tahiti, Bernstein’s satire of 1950s American suburban life, examines a disconsolate couple trying to attain the married bliss society—in its conformity and consumerism—promised them. He employs a jazzy Greek chorus trio to keep the critique moving along.

Begun when he was on his honeymoon, Bernstein’s first opera, which often feels like a musical, is a prequel to A Quiet Place, which he worked on at the Jacobs School in 1982.