Performer: Alain Vernhes

Boy falls in love with girl. Girl marries another man. Boy kills himself. The plot of Massenet's Werther isn't exactly complex or taxing, but then, in all great stories, it's the way you tell them that counts.The story certainly worked for its author. When it was published in 1774, The Sorrows of Young Werther propelled the young Goethe to fame and caused a literary sensation.

Puccini's Il Trittico, performed last night at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, is a unique item in the repertoire: a series of three one act operas with little to link them except the composer's conceit of what would work together in an evening. Each opera clocks in at something under an hour, and despite the relatively short duration, each has plenty of time to develop its characters.

Read our review of John Cox's production of ­Massenet's Thaïs in its 2008 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.