Libretto
Giovacchino Forzano
First performance
New York, Metropolitan Opera House, December 14, 1918.
Synopsis
Sister Angelica, as the mother of an illegitimate baby, expiates her sin in a convent. Her aunt, the Princess, seeking her signature to a document for her sister’s marriage, tells her that the child died two years ago. In despair Sister Angelica takes poison, but prays for forgiveness, seeing, as she dies, a vision of the Blessed Virgin bringing her child to her.
Sister Angelica represents a unique example in Puccini’s works, as it is the only opera based on an original libretto, not after a play or a book. Librettist Forzano claimed to have developed the subject unaware that Puccini had a sister who was a nun. The opera was quickly completed by the composer: the music was written in just a few months, between March and July 1917, followed by about a month dedicated to the orchestration. According to some sources, once the work was finished, Puccini showed it to his sister and fellow nuns of the convent, arousing profound emotion.
Of the three operas that make up the Triptych, Suor Angelica is the one that has gained the least success, despite being the most loved by Puccini himself.