On a barge moored on the Seine in Paris, the aging Michele senses that his young wife Giorgetta is drifting away from him. When he discovers her affair with the stevedore Luigi, Michele lures his rival onto the barge under cover of darkness and strangles him, concealing the body beneath his cloak. As Giorgetta approaches, Michele reveals the corpse at her feet. Puccini's taut, atmospheric one-act thriller — the first panel of Il Trittico — is a masterpiece of verismo tension.
Captured performances available to watch