Puccini's only comic opera, Gianni Schicchi, as well as The Cloak, is part of his Triptych (the third part, Sister Angelica, is extremely rarely staged).
Its plot is based on lines XXX of the song "Hell" from Dante's "Divine Comedy", which are dedicated to the Florentine Gianni Schicchi, a rogue and deceiver who played the role of a dying rich man and on his behalf made a false will. It would seem a classic story about how a thief stole a baton from a thief, but Puccini depicts the main character with undisguised sympathy, since he acts not so much out of self-interest as for the sake of the happiness of his lovers - his daughter Lauretta and Rinuccio, a relative of the late Buoso Donati. Together with Verdi's Falstaff, this work brilliantly completes the rich and glorious history of the Italian buffa opera genre.
"Gianni Schicchi" is an opera, first of all, an ensemble one, and in this sense a better place than the Chamber Stage named after B.A. The Pokrovsky Bolshoi Theater is not to be found for her.