Tosca
Our quick guide to Jonathan Kent's powerful production of one of Puccini's most noteable operas.
Combining romance, revolution and intrigue, Giacomo Puccini’s opera is a full-blooded drama. It is set in 19th-century Rome, in which opera singer Floria Tosca attempts to save her lover Cavaradossi from the villainous Baron Scarpia. This action-packed tale of politics and power is a great option for those new to opera.
Quick Facts
Who composed Tosca?
The music for Tosca was written by Giacomo Puccini. The composition took eleven years – he began writing in 1889 but soon fell out with the playwright Sardou. In 1895, Puccini once again gained the rights to write the music. The libretto (dialogue and lyrics) was written by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica with whom Puccini also worked on La bohème. The Royal Opera currently perform a production directed by Jonathan Kent.
Who wrote Tosca?
Tosca is based on the play La Tosca, written by the French playwright Victorien Sardou for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt. Puccini and his librettists softened the melodrama of Sardou’s play, making Tosca a far more intelligent and likeable character, and the love between her and Cavaradossi more tender and passionate. As always with Puccini librettos, superfluous information from the play was cut to make a tightly constructed operatic drama.
What is the story of the opera of Tosca?
Rome in 1800 is in political chaos. Cesare Angelotti, a former consul of the short-lived Roman Republic, has escaped imprisonment, and seeks refuge in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. The painter and republican sympathizer Mario Cavaradossi promises to hide him at his country villa. Baron Scarpia, Rome's tyrannical Chief of Police, suspects that Cavaradossi has helped Angelotti to escape. He persuades the painter's lover, opera singer Floria Tosca, whom he himself desires, that Cavaradossi has betrayed her. She leaves to confront Cavaradossi at his villa and Scarpia orders his men to follow her, in the hope they'll find Angelotti. Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi, and tortures him in Tosca's presence until she reveals Angelotti's hiding place. Scarpia subsequently condemns Cavaradossi to death. Alone with Tosca, Scarpia tells her that he will save Cavaradossi - but only if Tosca spends the night with him. Will Tosca yield to the man she hates to save the man she loves?
What famous music is in Tosca?
The aria ‘Vissi d’arte’ ('I have lived for art') from Puccini’s Tosca is one of the most famous moments in operatic history. It comes mid-way through Act II. Tosca, a famous singer, has been summoned to the apartment of Baron Scarpia, the chief of police, where her lover, the republican Cavaradossi, is being held prisoner. Scarpia tells Tosca that Cavaradossi’s life will be spared if she sleeps with him. At which point, Tosca, alone in her desperation, begins to sing her despairing prayer.
How long is the opera Tosca?
The performance lasts approximately 3 hours, including two intervals.
History
Collaboration or competition?
From the early 1890s Giacomo Puccini had toyed with adapting French playwright Victorien Sardou’s gripping melodrama La Tosca into an opera, but only began serious work following the premiere of the critically acclaimed La bohème in 1896. Employing La bohème's gifted librettists Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica to streamline Sardou's complicated plot, Puccini’s Tosca premiered in 1900.
In its time, Sardou’s play La Tosca was a hit, in large part thanks to the tremendous performance of Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. However, it is the opera which has stood the test of time, thanks to Puccini's dramatic score, which heightens the emotions of the characters. His arias convey the characters' innermost feelings, while his orchestration transports audiences to 19th-century Rome. Tosca, Cavaradossi and Scarpia each have their chances to tell audiences what they think and – most importantly – feel. It is not about realism, but about hyper-reality.
With the city gripped by political unrest, fears of violence plagued the premiere at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi. However, Tosca opened without incident, and although unpopular with critics who disliked its violence, it became an immediate success with the public and has remained a favourite ever since.
Tosca Synopsis
Characters
- Floria Tosca – an opera singer (sung by a soprano)
- Mario Cavaradossi – a painter and Tosca's lover (sung by a tenor)
- Barone Scarpia – Rome's Chief of Police (sung by a baritone)
- Sacristan – the caretaker of the church in which Tosca and Cavaradossi meet (sung by a baritone)
- Cesare Angelotti – an escaped prisoner and Cavaradossi's friend (sung by a baritone)
Cesare Angelotti, a Consul of the former Roman Republic, has escaped prison and seeks refuge in the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The painter Mario Cavaradossi, a Republican sympathizer working in the church, promises to help him. Angelotti hides as Cavaradossi’s lover Floria Tosca arrives. The lovers’ meeting reveals Tosca’s passionate love and jealousy. When Tosca has gone, Cavaradossi instructs Angelotti to dress in the disguise left for him, and hide at Cavaradossi’s villa. Baron Scarpia arrives at the church. He suspects Cavaradossi of hiding Angelotti. When Tosca returns, Scarpia uses a fan left by Angelotti to make her believe that Cavaradossi is having an affair. Tosca leaves for Cavaradossi’s villa, and Scarpia instructs his assistant Spoletta to follow her and track down Angelotti.
Scarpia has arrested Cavaradossi. He summons Tosca to his apartment, and forces her to listen as Cavaradossi is tortured in the next room. Tosca reveals Angelotti’s hiding place. Scarpia condemns Cavaradossi to death but tells Tosca that he will free her lover if she will offer herself to him. In agony, Tosca agrees and Scarpia tells her he will arrange a mock execution. As Scarpia embraces Tosca, she fatally stabs him.
As dawn approaches, Cavaradossi waits for his execution at the top of the Castel Sant’Angelo. Tosca arrives and tells him what she has done. She instructs him on how to pretend to die in the mock execution. When the soldiers shoot, Tosca is impressed with her lover’s acting. But Scarpia has doublecrossed her and Cavaradossi really is dead. As Spoletta’s men arrive to arrest her for Scarpia’s murder, she leaps from the battlements to her death.
Pictures and Videos
Gallery
The Te Deum: Ending the first act in style
The last five minutes of Act I of Tosca are a wonderful example of slow build-up leading to momentous climax. This final scene begins with quietly tolling bells and ends with the full chorus and orchestra. The whole of Act I takes place in a chapel within the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome. The act concludes with a religious service, as a Te Deum (a hymn sung in thanksgiving to God) is offered up in thanks for the news – later discovered to be inaccurate – that Napoleon’s invading army has been defeated.
First we hear two bells striking in a steady, even rhythm to announce the start of the service. The sound serves a specific and realistic purpose within the story and also sets the pattern for the music that follows. This bass repeats through the whole final section with a brooding and weighty effect that tells us serious ritual is underway. As well as the church sounds of bells and organ there is the sound of the congregation, first muttering chanted Latin. Puccini’s musical conclusion for celebrants, choir and congregation is their unaccompanied singing in unison of the line ‘Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur’ – ‘We acknowledge thee to be the Lord’.
However, these sounds of Heaven provide a backdrop to the sounds of something more hellish. Beyond the evocation of a church service is the sense of something frightening inexorably approaching – this is a march to the scaffold as well as praise for God. We hear a distant cannon firing at intervals, alerting the militia to the escape of a political prisoner. The focus of our attention is then not the religious service, but Scarpia in the chapel behind the altar. His solo voice cuts through the preparations as he voices his desires to possess Tosca by using her jealousy against her. His intentions come through in his climactic line about Cavaradossi and then Tosca: ‘One to the gallows, the other in my arms’. The orchestral ending of the act is a thrilling statement in the brass of Scarpia’s theme, which began the whole opera. From the start of the opera we have followed the competing forces of love, lust, power, politics and religion as they collide. The Act I concluding Te Deum is a magnificent compilation in action and music of them all.
Operatic prayer
The aria ‘Vissi d’arte’ from Puccini’s Tosca is one of the most famous moments in operatic history. But it almost didn’t make it into the final version of the opera, as the composer was worried by its ability to bring the evening to a halt: it is a show-stopper in the most literal sense. Puccini's concerns turned out to be well-founded – but it has become one of the composer’s most popular arias. It comes mid-way through Act II. Tosca, a famous singer, has been summoned to the apartment of Baron Scarpia, the chief of police, where her lover, the republican Cavaradossi, is being held prisoner. Scarpia tells Tosca that Cavaradossi’s life will be spared if she sleeps with him. At which point, Tosca begins to sing her despairing prayer. ‘Vissi d’arte’ is a heartfelt plea to God: ‘I lived for my art, I lived for love, I never harmed a living soul… why, why, o Lord, why do you reward me thus?’
While the aria has been a hit with audiences from the beginning – it was encored at the premiere performance – critics since have been more undecided. The Italian critic Luigi Torchi called it ‘a curious dramatic improbability of no musical significance’, but more recently the writer Julian Budden argued that ‘at this supreme crisis it is plausible that the singer’s past should unroll before her in an expanded moment: a life devoted to art, love and religious observance.’ The aria stands alone, almost as a performance within a performance. Maria Callas shared Puccini’s concerns about the aria’s power to bring the opera to a halt and even argued that it should be cut. But thankfully for opera fans past and present, ‘Vissi d’arte’ remains at the heart of Puccini’s Tosca as a show-stopping, heart-stopping paean to the power of art.
Cinematic drama
With its sweeping drama and overwhelming emotions, it is no surprise that the music of Tosca has been referenced in a number of films. In the James Bond Film Quantum of Solace the Te Deum of the finale to Act I of Tosca provides the setting for evil conspiracy, and the music from Act II is heard in a slow-motion shoot out.
It also sets the scene for the sparking of love between artists and singers in A Star is Born. Ally and her father discuss accepting an invitation to attend a concert – one that will change her life. In the background 'Recondita Armonia' is heard; the aria that Cavaradossi sings as he paints, as he reflects on Tosca's beauty.
Watch more
Watch a performance
Tosca runs from 26 November – 13 December 2024. There are many other ways to watch.
- Main Stage
Tosca
- Opera and Music
Enter the glory and terror of 19th-century Rome: a city where the political is always personal.
Watch online
You can watch the production as well as behind-the-scenes insights, interviews and introductions on Royal Ballet and Opera Stream.
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