Each constituent panel of the Trittico is so difficult to get right that an ideally satisfying complete recording is almost unattainable. Far better, surely, to issue each one-acter separately, and let the collector mix and match according to his own tastes or prejudices. Until the record companies take this course, however, they oblige us to make compromises. Among currently available sets on CD the fewest have to be made for Maazel's CBS, in which two of the corners of Il tabarro's fated triangle are sharply and eloquently pointed by Renata Scotto and Placido Domingo (the third slightly blunted by Ingvar Wixell); in which Scotto, again, is a heartfelt and touching Suor Angelica (others enjoy Marilyn Horne's balefully chesty Zia Principessa more than I do, though there is luxury casting in the smaller roles: Ileana Cotrubas, for example, as a youthfully eager Suor Genovieffa); and in which Tito Gobbi said farewell to the role of Gianni Schicchi, with a voice only minimally desiccated by his 63 years. Slightly heavy-featured conducting from Maazel, occasionally rather close focusing on the voices and an almost total absence of cueing bands are its other principal disadvantages.
Patane on Eurodisc/BMG takes the sensible course of casting each opera independently (Maazel has Domingo staying around after Il tabarro to sing Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi; stylishly done, though the impression of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is emphasized by the wiser decision to cast Cotrubas, not Scotto, as a charming Lauretta). Patane's policy has results that would be less mixed were the recording kinder to the voices. A good Gianni Schicchi, with Rolando Panerai in Gobbi's mould (though a size smaller) in the title-role, Peter Seiffert well-scaled to the surely tenorino part of Rinuccio and Helen Donath not quite pure but more than serviceable as Lauretta. The latter pair and most of the not very characterful supporting singers are edged by close microphoning, and the same is true of Lucia Popp's unexpectedly mannered and fussily phrased Suor Angelica; the unexaggerated and musical but also rather understated dragon aunt is Marjana Lipov¦ek. Il tabarro goes well, with a light-voiced Luigi, not very strong dramatically, in Giorgio Lamberti, Siegmund Nimsgern dignified, less than impassioned, as Michele but a vivid reading of Giorgetta from the admirable Ilona Tokody. Patane is excellent, never allowing the music to sag (during the earlier pages of both Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi Maazel has you looking at your watch from time to time) but distilling the beauties of Puccini's orchestration with affection and precision.
The 1962 Decca set has some moments of nervous hurry but also some of real thoughtful insight from Lamberto Gardelli (he notices the Debussy in Suor Angelica and phrases the lovely theme that personifies Angelica's sister Anna Viola more beautifully than either Maazel or Patane), some very period sound-effects, including a vast amount of additional spoken dialogue in Gianni Schicchi (the lively stage picture this is meant to evoke doesn't make up for some patches of lamentable ensemble) and a strangely balanced recording which recesses all save the principal singers into the orchestra. It also has Merrill's under-acted but finely sung Michele, Simionato's darkly authoritative Princess (her gravity making her far more formidable than Horne), del Monaco's stentorian and melodramatic Luigi and Corena's rather coarse comic turn of a Schicchi. And it has Tebaldi, of course. A rather bossy and inexpressive Giorgetta, with a few reminders when she takes the trouble to sing quietly of what she could have made of the role a few years earlier. At times an affecting Angelica, really trying to refine the tender phrases of the role and with moments of that almost extinct Italian art of subtle portamento, but too often harshening under pressure. A decent enough Lauretta, though partnered here by a reedy character tenor whose casting is quite inexplicable.
Not much, when all's said and done, to set against the two other sets, imperfect though both of those are. But there do exist classic recordings of all three operas. One of them, the Gobbi/Maazel Gianni Schicchi, is included in the CBS set, which for me puts it at the top of the current list. I can't help adding, though, that Gobbi's earlier LP recording, with los Angeles as Lauretta and Gabriele Santini conducting (EMI—nla) was even better. EMI are also sitting on the classic Suor Angelica (los Angeles and Serafin) and the classic Il tabarro (Gobbi again). All three of those are in mono, to be sure. If you insist on stereo then it's RCA you should be bullying, for their 1970 Il tabarro with Leontyne Price, Domingo and Sherrill Milnes and their 1972 Suor Angelica with Katia Ricciarelli. But please can they be reissued singly? Until they are, Maazel/CBS is the safest bet.'