SYNOPSIS OF PUCCINI'S IL TABARRO

Place: A barge on the Seine.
Time: 1910.
While the stevedores work unloading the barge, Michele wonders if his wife Giorgetta is still faithful. She serves wine to the workers, and they dance to the music of an organ grinder. Frugola enters, looking for her husband. She shows everyone the fruits of her shopping in Paris and scolds the men for their drinking. Luigi laments his lot in life. He remembers with Giorgetta their old neighborhood. Michele refuses to take Luigi to Rouen. Luigi arranges a secret rendez-vous with his lover Giorgetta before leaving. Michele reminisces with Giorgetta of the days before their child died, how all three would fit under his cloak. He knows she is straying, but wants to win her back. Luigi, thinking that Michele's lit pipe is Giorgetta's signal, returns to the barge and is confronted by Michele. Michele forces Luigi to confess his affair, then kills him, hiding the body under his cloak. When Giorgetta returns, she opens wide the cloak, revealing her dead lover.

synopsis from wikipedia

SUPERNATURALLY CAUTIOUS


I entered Gothenburg's opera house
like a barge through the mist, like a barcarolle
from Puccini's Il Tabarro

The lights of humanity shone in the foyer
Supernaturally cautious, I wove my way
through the crowd to level 1

The cloakroom attendant
gave me a smile as graceful as a soft adagio
I was sorry I didn't have a cloak to hand over

The performance was splendid
it wasn't football, the working-man's ballet,
it was Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky!

At the finale, I slipped out into the night,
a barge laden with silk and happiness,
the evening performance in my hold