Grand opera returns to US

Charleston - Grand opera in the Italian tradition returns to the annual Spoleto Festival USA with the staging of Giacomo Puccini…

Charleston - Grand opera in the Italian tradition returns to the annual Spoleto Festival USA with the staging of Giacomo Puccini's penultimate work, Il Trittico.

The opera tops the bill for this year's 23rd Spoleto Festival, which on Friday opens a 17-day run in Charleston, South Carolina, featuring 126 performances of opera, dance, theatre, jazz, orchestral and choral music, gospel singing, visual arts, chamber music and new music.

Il Trittico, Puccini's triptych of one-act performances, features a newly discovered 21-year-old Maltese tenor, Joseph Calleja.