Puccini’s melodrama about a volatile diva, an idealistic artist, and a sadistic police chief has thrilled and shocked audiences for more than a century.
Read the synopsis and program guide from the Metropolitan Opera.
From the Met: "The final scene in Act II of Puccini’s "Tosca" was unusual in many ways, not just for its extended pantomime and demands on the soprano’s physical acting, but also for the accompanying orchestral music, which functions just like a movie soundtrack—background music that “catches the action”—long before such soundtracks actually existed.
"And then there is the elephant in the room: all the joyous glee of a woman staring her abuser in the eye, taking revenge for unwanted “love” and for being assailed, for all the times when the only remedy was to dodge or tremble in immobility—and of saying “die!” not once but as many times as seems satisfying.
"That Scarpia’s death scene and its aftermath became infamous in both the play and the opera was hardly due simply to sacrilegious desecration of Catholic props. It was also because a woman had struck back, and because she—abetted in the opera by compositional alchemies that put actions and words to music—wins the entire audience over."
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
CAST:
Tosca: Lise Davidsen
Cavaradossi: Freddie De Tommaso
Scarpia: Quinn Kelsey
Sacristan: Patrick Carfizzi