Tosca
by Giacomo Puccini

Puccini’s melodrama about a volatile diva, a sadistic police chief, and an idealistic artist has offended and thrilled audiences for more than a century.

No opera is more tied to its setting than Tosca, which takes place in Rome on the morning of June 17, 1800, through dawn the following day. While the libretto takes some liberties with the facts, historical issues form a basis for the opera: the people of Rome are awaiting news of the Battle of Marengo in northern Italy, which will decide the fate of their symbolically powerful city.

The score of Tosca is considered a prime example of the style of verismo, an elusive term usually translated as “realism.” The typical musical features of the verismo tradition are prominent in Tosca: short arias with an uninhibited flood of raw melody, ambient sounds that blur the distinctions between life and
art, and the use of parlato - words spoken instead of sung - at moments of tension.

Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume

Cast:

Tosca: Sonya Yoncheva

Cavaradossi: Vittorio Grigolo

Scarpia: Željko Lučić

Sacristan: Patrick Carfizzi

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 Start time: 10:00 AM on Capital Public Radio.
Approximate running time 2 hrs 53 min

SEE "Tosca" live in a local cinema!  The Met Opera broadcasts select live productions directly into cinemas so you can see the opera instead of only listen on the radio. Click the link on this page to go to the Met Opera's website for info and to find a cinema near you!  Start times are generally 9:55am here on the west coast.

After this, upcoming productions in cinemas are:

Feb 10: "L'Elisir d'Amore" (Donizetti)
Feb 24: "La Boheme" (Puccini)
Mar 10: "Semiramide" (Rossini)
Mar 31: "Cosi Fan Tutte" (Mozart)
Apr 14: "Luisa Miller" (Verdi)
Apr 28: "Cendrillon" (Massenet)