Composed by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano.

First Performance: 14 December 1918, Metropolitan Opera, New York

Setting:The courtyard of a convent, towards the end of the 17th century

Synopsis:

As the nuns talk and attend to their duties, the question of earthly desires is raised. Suor Genovieffa confesses that she would love to hold a lamb again and Suor Dolcina longs for rich food. Suor Angelica says that she has no unfulfilled wishes, but her colleagues do not believe her, as they know she has been longing to hear from her noble family for seven years, since she had been forced to enter the convent. One of the sisters has been stung by a wasp and Angelica, who has extensive herbal know-ledge, provides the appropriate medication. Two nuns who have been out in the world in search of food report that a fine carriage is outside the gates, but are unable to answer Angelica’s questions about its coat of arms. She is summoned by the abbess: her aunt the princess has come to see her, not from sympathy but because, as the legal guardian of Angelica and her sister Anna Viola, she needs Angelica’s signature to a document. Anna Viola is to be married, to a man, she adds harshly, who has forgiven the stain on the family honor caused by Angelica’s sin.

Angelica longs for news of her baby son, but is told that he had died. Left alone in her grief, she mixes a fatal brew and drinks it. Realising that she has committed a mortal sin, she prays for forgiveness. As she dies she sees a vision of the Virgin leading her child to her.

[Synopsis Source: Opera~Opera]

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