La Fanciulla del West, set in the California of the Gold Rush, was Giacomo Puccini’s first creation for the Metropolitan Opera. Il Trittico, a “triptych” of one-act shorts, was his second. Consisting of the gritty melodrama Il Tabarro (think Zola), the weepy Suor Angelica (think Madama Butterfly), and the nimble farce Gianni Schicchi (think Falstaff), Il Trittico taxes a company’s theatrical resources to the max. Puccini being Puccini, each locale generates its own highly specific orchestral textures and colors, which may explain why Gianandrea Noseda, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, has programmed Il Trittico in concert. Unfortunately, the National Symphony is finding it institutionally impossible to bust out of the snake-bit Trump Kennedy Center. Artists galore are boycotting that condemned hulk these days, and so, by and large, are audiences. Only the symphony, it seems, still fills the house. But for Il Trittico, there’s the guilt-free option of a run-out reprise at Carnegie Hall. As always with the show, there’s the question of double and triple casting. At the world premiere, the three leading soprano roles went to three rival prima donnas. Since then, big risk-takers have sometimes risen to the challenge of a trifecta—and thus on this occasion. Erika Grimaldi portrays Giorgetta, the bored wife of a barge owner in Paris; the nun Suor Angelica, cloistered after giving birth to an illegitimate child; and Lauretta, the kittenish daughter of the trickster Gianni Schicchi. The baritone Roman Burdenko appears as Giorgetta’s cuckolded husband Luigi and as the dad Lauretta wraps around her little finger (cue ”O mio babbino caro”). The mezzo Agnieszka Rehlis pulls off another hat trick as a ragpicker, a noble relation of Suor Angelica with a heart of stone, and a poor relation scheming for a piece of her dead cousin’s estate. The originally announced marquee name on the roster was was that of the tenor Jonathan Tetelman as Giorgetta’s lover and the boy-next-door Lauretta wants to marry. If Puccini had written a part for the father of Suor Angelica’s child, Tetelman no doubt would have taken that one, too. But Puccini did not, and besides, Tetelman has now added his name to the list of Trump-Kennedy Center refuseniks. We await news of his replacement. —Matthew Gurewitsch —Matthew Gurewitsch