Considered the greatest Italian opera composer since Verdi, Giacomo Puccini (1858--1924) created many of the most popular operas in the repertoire, including Madama Butterfly , La Boheme , Tosca , Manon Lescaut , and Turandot . His well-known gifts for lush melody and rapturous lyricism, along with his strong sense of theater, are amply evident in Il Trittico ("The Triptych"), a series of three highly individual one-act operas patterned after the Parisian Grand Guignol's three-part scheme of horror, tragedy, and farce. Il Trittico, which premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1918, consists of Il Tabarro , a somber, near-melodramatic tragedy; Suor Angelica ," a sentimental tragedy with strong melodies and a mystic theme; and Gianni Schicchi ," a delightful comedy, full of wit and vivacity, whose libretto was derived---surprisingly enough---from a few lines in Dante's Inferno . All three works appear in this single volume, reprinted from authoritative early editions.