Opera in one act to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami, from the drama La houppelande by Didier Gold, the first panel of The triptych. First performance: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December 1918.

For a long time Puccini thought about composing a composite work consisting of three one-act plays. Various possibilities were gradually discarded, from resuming the three canticles of the Divine Comedy to using the three short stories by Maxim Gorky. The ultimate realization was eventually tackled in precise stages.
It is likely that Puccini had seen in Paris, in May 1912, the drama La houppelande by Didier Gold, from which he drew up the first panel of The triptych. The composition takes place in two distinct phases: in the Autumn of 1913 and then, after a period of work dedicated to La rondine, between October 1915 and November 1916. For the libretto Puccini initially sought the collaboration of Giovacchino Forzano, then Ferdinando Martini, and finally Giuseppe Adami. Once the work had been completed, it was necessary to find a completion to fill the evening and at first Puccini considered associating it with Le Villi. t was the meeting with Giovacchino Forzano, author of the libretti of the other two panels, that allowed Puccini to finally accomplish his original project.

For the premiere of The triptych the choice fell once again on the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. this was the first time that Puccini did not attend the debut of one of his works, because of the danger of a transoceanic voyage in a time of war. The reception by public and critics was lukewarm, especially for Il tabarro. The presence of the three works in the repertoire of The triptych has since been rather sporadic. The preference mostly being to represent them separately. Today, the prevailing attitude is to stage them together, in a single evening, as Puccini had originally intended.