Giacomo Puccini Tosca

A guide for opera goers to Tosca, which includes a synopsis of the plot and discussions on style.

A comprehensive guide to Puccini's TOSCA, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, a complete, newly translated Libretto with Italian/English side-by side, and over 20 music highlight examples.

Annotation A NEWLY TRANSLATED LIBRETTO for Puccini's TOSCA, featuring Music Highlight Examples.

(Amadeus). An idealistic artist, a celebrated opera singer, and a corrupt police chief engage in a fierce battle of wills in this tempestuous tale of passion, intrigue, cruelty, and deception. Puccini's great melodrama may be set in 1800, amid the Napoleonic wars, but the conflicts between love and loyalty, the state and the individual, and hypocrisy and principle are anything but dated. Floria Tosca, the beautiful, glamorous singer who has all of Rome at her feet, is one of the iconic soprano roles in the Italian repertoire. She's caught between two men: her lover, the handsome painter Cavaradossi, who defies the law to hide a rebel friend; and the villainous Baron Scarpia, Rome's all-powerful chief of police, who will stop at nothing to crush the rebels and conquer Tosca for himself. This gripping story of torture, attempted rape, murder, suicide, and general mayhem is as thrilling and dramatic as anything seen on the operatic stage.

Tosca's première in Rome in January 1900 was nearly disrupted by a terrorist threat to blow up Italy's King Umberto. Victorien Sardou had written the melodrama for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt. Giacomo Puccini's popular opera is a tale of sadism and brutality, torture, attempted rape, murder, an execution and two suicides. 'Realism' was in vogue: Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana had been a great success, as had Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. With sharp practice, the publisher Giulio Ricordi obtained 'Tosca' for Puccini, who had already composed Manon Lescaut and La Bohème. The story, set in the Napoleonic, era was ideal for Puccini, a chain-smoker who enjoyed women, shooting birds, and high-speed motor cars. A political prisoner seeks sanctuary in the church where prima donna Floria Tosca's lover Cavaradossi, a role associated with Pavarotti, is painting a picture of Mary Magdalen. In Va, Tosca! the police chief Scarpia fantasises about Tosca during a Te Deum celebrating Napoleon's victory. Tosca stabs Scarpia following the famous operatic aria, Vissi d'arte, immortalised by Maria Callas on stage and in the film produced by Franco Zeffirelli. Awaiting death before dawn in the Castel Sant'Angelo, Cavaradossi sings the well-known arias E lucevan le stelle and O dolci mani. Tosca's attempt to save him comes to nothing. Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, 'Short Guides to Great Operas' are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience. Other 'Short Guides to Great Operas' that you may enjoy include La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Carmen.

Tosca, one of Puccini's greatest and most popular operas, is a supreme example of music's power to enthral the audience. In his introductory essay to this guide, Bernard Williams discusses the enduring quality of its appeal. Bernard Keeffe, in his article, analyses different aspects of the score, noting Puccini's special genius for orchestration and the subtle effects that give the opera its irresistible vitality, while Stuart Woolf's survey of the historical background reveals its political and nationalistic undertones.Enriched by twenty-five archive photographs, a detailed thematic analysis, the original libretto with the facing literal translation and a section containing up-to-date discographical and bibliographical information, this guide will prove an invaluable companion for opera-goers and anyone wanting to delve deeper into the genesis, history and significance of Puccini's work.Contains:Manifest Artifice, Bernard WilliamsThe Music of Puccini's Tosca, Bernard KeeffeHistorical Perspectives on Tosca, Stuart WoolfTosca: Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after the play La Tosca by Victorien SardouTosca: English translation by EMI Classics