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: Carlo Rizzi



Cast:

TOSCA: Jennifer Rowley

CAVARADOSSI: Joseph Calleja

SCARPIA: Wolfgang Koch

SACRISTAN: Philip Cokorinos



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


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