I think it’s a must-see for everyone,” says Vaness.
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“ Tosca is an incredible shocker full of every single emotion-from hatred, to obsession, to great joy, which you really only see in the first act. I’m doing some different things with it to make sure that what we accomplish with this opera is true.”įor Vaness, Tosca offers one of Puccini’s most beautiful scores that’s easily accented by production and costumes. “The thing that strikes me is that it’s an opera that can be exaggerated, but if you keep it real it’s an incredible tragedy. “I’ve sung this part hundreds of times, I remember my first Tosca well because I did it in grad school,” says Vaness. With Vaness at the helm, Sandler says the production of Tosca is in good hands-the renowned soprano is considered one of the preeminent interpreters of the title role and brings her vision of the opera to Kansas City. Tosca is one of Puccini’s most ardent and beautiful operas.”
While there are other motivations at play as well, the story takes place in Rome in the year 1800 during the Napoleonic wars. “Unfortunately, we still find ourselves in a time when ruthless political ambition results in violence,” says Deborah Sandler, general director and CEO of the Lyric Opera. She lived for art and love, and her willingness to trust an evil man doesn’t end well. Facing ruthless tyranny and torture, Tosca’s revenge is bathed in violence and sealed with a kiss. Fueled with jealousy over Floria Tosca, a celebrated Roman opera singer, the police of chief antagonizes Tosca’s artist lover for alleged treasonous acts.įrom the start, Puccini’s penchant for verismo is as present as ever, and to further tighten the tension, each act packs in twists and terrors. Tosca tells the classic tale of love and war with a tangled love triangle. Eleven years later, in 1900, Puccini’s opera Tosca had its triumphant first performance in Rome. It keeps people excited at times when the opera season is off for a while.” Love, politics, sadism and religion: all these ingredients are brought together in the story of the jealous and impulsive singer Floria Tosca, who is in love with the idealistic Mario Cavaradossi in an Italy fighting for its independence. “The decision to put this show last in the season was a great one. “When they say go out with a bang this is definitely one of those bangs,” says Carol Vaness, the director of Tosca. In a moment of doubt and insecurity, Scarpia cries out: “Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!” (Tosca, you make me forget God!).When the Lyric Opera of Kansas City brings Puccini’s Tosca to life, the classic tale of love, deceit, tyranny, revenge, and sacrifice will offer the dramatic end deserving of closing out the Lyric Opera’s 2021-22 season. Tosca is beauty face to face with horror and devastation. How can they maintain their faith intact when everything around them is tainted by corruption and despotism? How will Floria Tosca react when the borderline between perverted power and religious dogma becomes blurred? She ultimately leaps into the void, not just physically, but because she needs to escape and preserve her authenticity and freedom. This same pressure, exerted urbi et orbi by the Vatican, converts the characters into veritable puppets. Villalobos highlights the political, moral and social pressure that weighs on the public, drawing parallels with the oppression suffered by Pier Paolo Pasolini (murdered because he was considered an enemy of the government) and the personal torment of Caravaggio, as seen by Santiago Ydáñez. In it the Spanish stage director Rafael R. This new version, first seen at La Monnaie, was coproduced by the Gran Teatre del Liceu in partnership with other opera houses. The demoniacal opening chords become the Leitmotiv of their violent exchanges in the second act.
She clashes with Scarpia, the ruthless, sadistic police chief who has one fatal weakness: the diva herself. The ageless heroine Tosca is a turn-of-the century femme fatale but also the embodiment of the committed modern woman. Tosca – here played by Sondra Radvanovsky, Maria Agresta and Monica Zanettin– has two sides to her character: sincere piety and sensuality. Michael Fabiano, Joseph Calleja and Antonio Corianò(as Mario Cavaradossi) and Evgeny Nikitin, Luca Salsi and George Gagnidze (as Scarpia) complete the star casts of this thriller of hatred and passion set in Rome under the Napoleonic occupation (June 1800), in which all the main characters perish.įirst performed in Rome in 1900 (in 1902 at the Liceu), Tosca relates how a prima donna's suspicions determine her lover's fate. The drama, in which the music highlights the characters' psychological makeup, is underscored by the fear of God as a tool of political domination and social manipulation. But the combined effects of Floria's jealousy and religious and political oppression bring all three protagonists to a tragic end.
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“E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma”: Floria Tosca, end of Act II ( Tosca) (And before him, all Rome trembled.)įloria and Mario are in love and determined to defend their free love affair.