Il Tabarro (The Cloak) was the first of three one-act operas composed for Puccini's Il Trittico (Triptych), the others being Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) and Gianni Schicchi. Puccini commissioned the libretto from Guiseppe Adami after seeing Didier Gold's play, La houppelande (the cloak), in Paris, and reveling in its elements of Grand Guignol (a mixture of horror and melodrama). Puccini had originally requested that Giovacchino Forzano—who would eventually supply the libretti for the other two members of the composer's tryptych—adapt Gold's play, but both Forzano and Puccini's next choice, Ferdinando Martini, declined; in Adami, however, he found a willing collaborator. The resulting opera represents a new level of musico-dramatic unity for Puccini, and comes closer to the ideals of verismo than perhaps Leoncavallo or Mascagni ever did during the heyday of their style in the 1890s. Of the three Trittico operas, Il Tabarro has become the best-established in the repertory, although its comedic counterpart, Gianni Schicchi, has also enjoyed sustained popularity.

Set in Paris during the first years of the twentieth century, Il Tabarro's tightly focused plot centers on Michele, the owner of a barge moored on the Seine; his much-younger wife, Giorgetta, who no longer enjoys their nomadic river life and has taken up with a man her own age; and her lover, Luigi, who wants to settle down in Paris to a more stable workman's life—hopefully with Giorgetta. As is typical of the grim verismo style, the outcome is unpleasant for all involved: Michele, who is already suspicious of his wife's behavior, unwittingly discovers Luigi arriving at the barge to meet Giorgetta; Michele strangles the young man and hides him under his cloak, only revealing the body when his horrified wife emerges to reconcile with him.

Puccini's score seems to grow almost seamlessly from the opening "Seine" music, the gently sway of which emerges as a unifying theme throughout the work. Unlike Gianni Schicchi, which lays claim to the evergreen "O mio babbino caro," and Suor Angelica which offers the heartrending "Senza mamma," Il Tabarro has no readily excerptable arias. However, because they are so rare, and so well integrated into the fluid orchestral texture, the few lyrical moments in this unforgiving drama have a greater impact in context. Among the most memorable moments are the impassioned duet between Giorgetta and Luigi as they dream of a better life in Paris, and Michele's jealous tirade on the deck of the barge when he realizes his wife's infidelity; his anger seems uncontainable, and the orchestra echoes this with near-boiling figurations.

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