On today’s date in 1918, the Metropolitan Opera in New York offered the world premiere performance of not one, not two, but three brand-new operas by Giacomo Puccini.

The three one-act operas are collectively billed as “Il Trittico” or “The Tryptych.” In order of their presentation at the Met, the tryptych consisted of “Il Tabarro” (or “The Cloak”), a rather sordid tale of passion and murder, followed by a sentimental tear-jerker titled “Suor Angelica” (or “Sister Angelica,” after its Romantic heroine), and, for a comic finale, “Gianni Schicchi,” titled after the resourceful hero of its comic plot.

Musical America reported a warm welcome for the three new Puccini operas, but did find “Il Tabarro’s” on-stage sex and violence “in the main, black and brutal.” In that journal’s opinion, the hit of the evening was the comic opera, “Gianni Schicci.” In particular, one brief soprano aria from that opera so pleased the first night audience that it had to be encored.

Over time, this little aria, “O mio babbino caro,” has become one of Puccini’s “Greatest Hits,” and has even reached audiences outside of the opera house, when the melody cropped up in the soundtracks of a number of movies, ranging from “Room with a View” to “G.I. Jane.”