If you’re anywhere near Edinburgh, get a ticket: Scottish Opera’s Il trittico reviewed

It does no harm, once in a while, to assume that the creators of an opera actually know what they’re doing. Puccini was clear that he wanted the three one-act operas of Il trittico to be performed together and in a particular order. Promoters and directors have had other ideas, and between the wars it was apparently common to perform the triptych’s comic final opera, Gianni Schicchi, in a double bill with Strauss’s Salome, which must have been an interesting night out. Come for the necrophilia, stay for the lulz.

But Scottish Opera’s new production presents Il trittico in the form the composer intended, and what d’you know? It works. Four hours (including intervals) is hardly excessive – we’ve all binge-watched longer box sets – and in return you get the full Puccini once-over: from the noirish slow burn of Il tabarro, through the emotional wringer of Suor Angelica and out into the comic sunburst of Gianni Schicchi.