Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 december 1858; Bruxelles 29 november 1924) – Tosca is an Opera in three act. The Libretto was written by Victorien Sardou, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa based on the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou. First performance: Rome, Teatro Costanzi, 14th January 1900.
Characters:
Floria Tosca (soprano), singer
Mario Cavaradossi (tenor), painter
Baron Scarpia (baritone), police chief
Cesare Angelotti (bass), patriot
Spoletta (tenor), police officer
a Sacristan (baritone)
Giacomo Puccini set the first act of his opera Tosca in Sant’Andrea della Valle (in the Barberini Chapel) in Rome. The drama unfolds as soon as one enters the church. Mattia Preti’s enormous paintings (1650-51), spreading the story of St. Andrew’s martyrdom across the curving apse, have an almost unbearable impact. The three frescoes, St. Andrew Raised on the Cross, St. Andrew’s Crucifixion, and St. Andrew’s Burial, are both uplifting and tragic. Above the apse, Domenichino’s frescoes (1624-27), less dramatic but much more beautiful, also depict episodes from the life of the saint, including the famous St. Andrew Brings Peter to Jesus and Jesus’ Call to the Fishermen Andrew and Peter.
THE PLOT – Rome, June 1800
Act One – Inside the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle
One of the leaders of the Roman Republic, Cesare Angelotti, has succeeded in escaping from the prison of Castel Sant’Angelo and has taken refuge in the church. He is looking for the key to the Attavanti Chapel, which his sister has hidden there for him. When he finds it he hides inside the chapel.
At that moment the Sacristan enters, bringing breakfast and painting materials for the painter Cavaradossi, who takes up work again on a painting of Mary Magdalene whose features are based on the face of an unknown woman who attends the church.
Cavaradossi does not want to eat and so the sacristan hides the basket of food for himself and moves off.
Now that they are alone, Angelotti comes out of his hiding place in the chapel to see his old friend Cavaradossi.
At that moment we hear Floria Tosca calling her beloved Mario; Angelotti takes the basket of food and goes back into hiding.
Tosca is a very jealous woman and is suspicious as she enters the church, for she has heard voices but can see no one. Mario tries to calm her down and in the end they agree to meet that evening after her concert and to spend the night together in the painter’s house outside the city.
As she is leaving, Tosca looks at Cavaradossi’s painting and clearly recognises the features of the marquise Attavanti. Again her jealousy is fired, but once again Mario manages to reassure her.
When the singer has left, Angelotti steps out and continues his talk with Mario. The escaped prisoner leaves the empty basket and takes the woman’s clothes that his sister has prepared for his flight, but then a cannon shot is heard announcing that his escape has been detected. The two men hurry out of the church, heading for Mario’s house.
The sacristan returns with the choir and altar boys to prepare the Te Deum giving thanks for the victory that the Austrian general Mélas seems to be winning over Napoleon at Marengo. The police chief Scarpia and police officer Spoletta, who are trying to find Angelotti, enter and search the church.
Scarpia finds a fan in the chapel and is surprised to discover that the face of Mary Magdalene is a portrait of Marquise Attavanti. Meanwhile the sacristan is disappointed to find that the basket is now empty.
Scarpia considers these very clear clues and when Tosca reappears he shows her the fan with the Attavanti crest on it, deliberately playing on her jealousy. He points out to the singer that the woman portrayed in the painting is undoubtedly the marquise.
Tosca sets off for Mario’s house, certain that she will surprise him with her rival; Scarpia has Spoletta follow her secretly.
The faithful file into the church and the Te Deum begins, while Scarpia thinks of his next victory: he will arrest the two conspirators and win Tosca.
ACT TWO – Scarpia’s room in the Palazzo Farnese
Scarpia is having his dinner, anxiously awaiting news from Spoletta. On the floor below in the building Mélas’s victory is being celebrated and Tosca is singing in the presence of Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples.
Spoletta arrives. He has lost Angelotti but has arrested Cavaradossi, charged with suspicious behaviour.
The painter is interrogated but does not betray his friend.
Tosca arrives and Mario is led into an adjacent room so that she can hear his screams as he is being tortured.
Mario resists but Tosca, shaken by his desperate cries, agrees to speak and reveals that Angelotti is hiding in the well in Cavaradossi’s house.
A policeman is sent to find him and Mario curses Tosca’s frailty. Meanwhile they learn that Napoleon has turned the tables in the battle of Marengo and has defeated General Mélas. Mario exults and is led away. Scarpia tells Tosca that he will free Mario if she gives herself to him. Tosca refuses scornfully and Scarpia insists. When she learns that Angelotti has been discovered and has taken his own life, she decides to accept the police chief’s proposal: Mario will undergo a mock execution before a firing squad with blanks loaded in their rifles and will then be free to leave with a pass that Scarpia will draw up and sign.
Scarpia gloats over a victory that he has been preparing: Tosca is about to be his. He approaches her but as he embraces her, Tosca plunges a knife into his breast and takes the pass which Scarpia still has in his hand. With one last scornful look at the now lifeless body of the odious police chief she leaves.
Pavarotti – E lucevan le stelle
ACT THREE – Battlements of Castel Sant’Angelo
It is dawn. We hear the song of a shepherd and the sound of the bells as Mario writes a farewell letter to Tosca, reminding her of his true love.
Tosca rushes in, explains the mock execution that Scarpia has arranged and tells her lover that she has killed him.
She gives him all the details and warns him that he must be very credible when he falls before the firing squad.
Tosca watches the execution hidden in a pillbox and is impressed by the realism of Mario’s fall. When at last the firing squad moves away she goes up to Mario and discovers that he is really dead. In that very moment she hears excited cries as Scarpia’s body is found and, while Spoletta is trying to capture her, she leaps to her death from the battlements of the castle.
