From hell to paradise: With Giacomo Puccini's Il trittico, Theater Kiel presents three one-act plays that unite human abysses, longings and destinies in touching images and great musical intensity.
"Hell": Giorgetta and Michele have lost their child - their marriage is falling apart due to their grief. When Giorgetta seeks solace with Luigi, Michele's jealousy flares up into murderous rage.
"Purgatory": The young Angelica, illegitimately pregnant, is banished to a convent. Years later, she learns that her child has died - a pain that drives her desperately to her death.
"Paradise": The wealthy Buoso Donati is dead and his greedy relatives are hoping for an inheritance. But Buoso has bequeathed his fortune to the church. Now the shrewd Gianni Schicchi has to make the impossible possible - with cunning, humor and a dash of heavenly irony.
Puccini's triptych, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1918, shows the whole range of human emotions in three different milieus - from despair and guilt to hope and love. With fine psychological observation and cinematic precision, the composer draws characters who gain unforgettable depth in a short space of time.
The opulently staged Kiel production by Pier Francesco Maestrini combines the three acts into a great whole and takes them back to their origins: Dante's "Divine Comedy", whose three parts - Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso - serve as the spiritual foundation of Puccini's last stage work. And "O mio babbino caro" is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt arias in opera history - a moment of pure beauty in the tension between death and life.
Premiere October 4, 2025
Further performances: October 26 and 31, November 5, 8 and 28, 2025, January 8 and 18, March 14, 2026
