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Puccini Tosca 15 november 2024 Opera in concert version
Conductor Marco Armiliato
Choirmaster Stefano Visconti

Puccini Tosca

Opera in concert version
Friday 15 November 2024 - 20 h
Grimaldi Forum

Opera in three acts
Music by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa after the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou
Premiere: Rome, Teatro Costanzi, 14 january 1900

Puccini Centenary Festival

Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels a hundred years ago, in November 1924. The Opéra de Monte-Carlo pays him homage by bringing you a glamourous concert performance of Tosca with Maria José Siri, Roberto Alagna and Luca Salsi. The great difference in mood and character compared to La bohème still surprise us, in spite of them having been written by the same composer and the same librettists – Tosca with no less a struggle than La bohème, which had been conceived at a similar time but premiered four years earlier.

La bohème, set in Paris, is lyrical with a good portion of humour and romanticism. The story about six young people, who seem very real to us, is presented in short episodes. During Tosca, on the other hand, we are witness to passionate confrontations between three almost superhuman personalities. Set before a political background and located in sombre stone monuments within the city of Rome, a gory plot about love, sex and violence unfolds before us with a dramatic stringency that leaves no room for digression before it culminates in the final coup-de-théâtre: an execution which turns out to be real instead of fake, and the primadonna’s famous leap into the void from the Castel Sant’Angelo’s balustrade…

Artists
Conductor | Marco Armiliato
Choirmaster | Stefano Visconti
Floria Tosca | Maria José Siri
Mario Cavaradossi | Roberto Alagna
Baron Scarpia | Luca Salsi
A Sacristan | Giovanni Romeo
Cesare Angelotti | Giorgi Manoshvili
Spoletta | Reinaldo Macias
Sciarrone | Paolo Marchini
A Jailer | Fabio Bonavita
A Shepherd boy | Galia Bakalov
Repetitor | Kira Parfeevets
Choir of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Children's choir of the Académie de musique Rainier III
Artists' biographies
Puccini and I... with Roberto Alagna

“Puccini liked to say that he only knew how to compose for the theatre. In the midst of the verismo movement, he established his style by adding a touch of romanticism. His source of inspiration was his characters, their love stories and their tragedies. The heroines and heroes of his librettos are often simple, almost ordinary people. Like Balzac, he created his own human comedy. All his operas could be one and the same work, merging into the reality of his tumultuous existence. Mimì, Minnie, Tosca, Giorgetta, Butterfly and Manon all represent the ultimate woman. The woman who fascinates him, attracts him, inspires him and makes him fall in love. His male characters are a reflection of his own personality. Rodolfo is him. So is Mario. Calaf too, so infatuated with Turandot that he risks his life. He is the man, the hero, the lover, the seducer, the vile, the deceitful, the cad, the poet, the artist, the knight, the suspicious, the traitor… Besides, isn’t he himself multifaceted in terms of his first names? Giacomo, Antonio, Domenico, Michele, Secondo, Maria Puccini. All his duets could be recounted as a single love story. His couples could be one and the same. The narrative would then be uninterrupted, as if listening to a complete score. It’s all about love, and in love with his music and his works… we are!”

Synopsis

Act I

Rome, 17 June 1800, midday. Cesare Angelotti, former consul of the Roman Republic established by Napoleon Bonaparte, which has recently been overthrown, has just escaped from Castel Sant’Angelo where he had been imprisoned by Baron Vitellio Scarpia, head of the Papal police. He has sought refuge inside the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, which is empty at this time of day. Using a key hidden by his sister, Marquise Attavanti, he was able to get into the family’s chapel where the Marquise had left some women’s clothing to disguise himself. The Sacristan enters, a grumpy old man. Angelotti hides just in time. Then the artist Mario Cavaradossi arrives. He is working on a painting of Mary Magdalene. The Sacristan is surprised at seeing the portrait as he recognises the features of a beautiful unknown woman who had recently come to the church to pray. Cavaradossi contemplates the face and compares it to that of his beloved, the singer Floria Tosca (“Recondita armonia”). After the Sacristan has left Angelotti comes out of his hiding place and reveals his identity to Cavaradossi, who shares with him the same political ideas. Their reunion is interrupted by the arrival of Tosca (“Mario! Mario! Mario!”). Angelotti hides again. Tosca makes a moving declaration of love to Cavaradossi (“Non la sospiri la nostra casetta?”). Her jealousy is aroused at the sight of the painting, but Cavaradossi reassures her, and she moves away. Angelotti reappears, and Cavaradossi offers him refuge in his own home. The sound of cannon-fire announces that Angelotti’s escape has been discovered. The two men hurriedly leave the church. The Sacristan returns bringing news that Bonaparte has been defeated at Marengo. A celebration is to take place at the Palazzo Farnese and Tosca has been engaged to sing there. During this time the Te Deum will be played at the church. The Sacristan hastily assembles the choirboys to prepare the ceremony.

Informed of Angelotti’s escape plan Scarpia has come looking for him in the church. Recognising Marquise Attavanti’s face in the portrait of Mary Magdalene, and finding near the family chapel a fan left behind by the fugitive he suspects Cavaradossi of being his accomplice. Tosca arrives to tell her lover that as she has to sing that evening at the palace she cannot meet him. Seeing that he has left she is again overcome with jealousy. Scarpia has long desired Tosca and stirs up her jealousy by showing her the fan. Tosca rushes off to Cavaradossi’s house. Scarpia tells the policeman Spoletta to follow her. He stays behind in the church to listen to the Te Deum being sung in honour of King Ferdinand IV of Naples, who liberated Rome and restored the pope to his throne.

 

Act II

Scarpia is seated alone at a table in his lounge at the Palazzo Farnese, the Roman residence of the Bourbons of Naples. From downstairs he can hear sounds of the party given by Queen Maria-Carolina. The Baron is mulling over his plan. He sends the policeman Sciarrone to deliver a note to Tosca summoning her to him. In a gripping declaration of faith he reveals his violent character and lust for power (“Ha più forte sapore la conquista violenta”). Spoletta arrives to tell him that Angelotti is nowhere to be found, but that he has arrested Cavaradossi and brought him to the palace. He is being held in the next room. While the cantata sung by Tosca rings out Scarpia interrogates Cavaradossi, but the artist denies knowing where Angelotti is hiding. The cantata comes to an end and Tosca enters. The lovers embrace and then Cavaradossi is led away into the next room. Tosca also refuses to speak, until Scarpia tells her that Cavadarossi has been tortured. Through the door Cavaradossi begs Tosca to remain silent. As a result the torture increases. He cries out several times. Unable to support Cavaradossi’s suffering Tosca reveals Angelotti’s hiding-place: a well in the garden of the artist’s house. Sciarrone drags in Cavaradossi. Weak and bloody he realises that Tosca has betrayed the secret and rejects her. But Sciarrone brings the news that Bonaparte has reversed the situation at Marengo and that the French are victorious. Cavaradossi exults and insults Scarpia before being taken away to Castel Sant’Angelo. Alone with Tosca Scarpia blackmails her: if she succumbs to his advances Cavaradossi will be spared and they will be allowed to leave Rome (“Già. Mi dicon venal”). Torn by her dilemma Tosca cries out her suffering (“Vissi d’arte”). The scene is interrupted by Spoletta who announces that just as he was to be arrested Angelotti killed himself. He awaits his master’s instructions concerning Cavaradossi. Scarpia says the decision is up to Tosca. She agrees to give herself to him in exchange for a safe-conduct. Scarpia agrees to the bargain, but explains that as he does not have the authority to grant pardon to the prisoner he will arrange for a mock execution, using blank bullets. “As we did for Palmieri” he says to Spoletta in a low voice. While Scarpia is writing the safe-conduct Tosca seizes a knife on the table. Just as Scarpia is to kiss her she plunges the knife into his heart. Scarpia dies, clutching in his hand the safe-conduct. Tosca snatches it away. She places a candlestick on each side of the body and lays a crucifix on his breast. She then cautiously leaves.

 

Act III

Dawn rises on the battlements of the Castel Sant’Angelo, hailed by the bells of the neighbouring churches and the song of a young shepherd boy (“Io de’ sospiri”). Cavaradossi awaits his execution. In exchange for a ring he bribes a gaoler to deliver a farewell letter to Tosca. In the letter Cavaradossi relates his memories of happy times (“E lucevan le stelle”: And the stars shone). Overcome with emotion he stops writing. Tosca then arrives, escorted by Spoletta. She shows the safe-conduct to her lover which they read excitedly. Tosca tells him of Scarpia’s murder and urges him to feign death when the firing squad fires on him. But Scarpia has betrayed her: the rifles are loaded with real bullets. Meanwhile the Baron’s body has been discovered. In despair Tosca escapes from Sciarrone and Spoletta. She leaps from the parapet into the river Tiber, telling Scarpia that they will meet again, before God.

 

Translated by Mary McCabe

Origin and premiere

In 1889 Puccini – at the time still virtually unknown – attended two performances of Victorien Sardou’s play La Tosca, starring Sarah Bernhardt. He asked his publisher and mentor, Giulio Ricordi, to acquire the rights, and his wish was granted. However, absorbed with his opera Manon Lescaut which, on 1st February 1893 would make him famous throughout Europe, he put the project off until later. The much-coveted libretto almost slipped through his fingers in favour of Alberto Franchetti, but at the end of 1895 Tosca was officially handed to Puccini. Immediately following the premiere of La Bohème (1st February 1896) he got down to work. The adaptation was entrusted to the duo with whom Puccini had previously collaborated for Manon Lescaut and La Bohème (they would subsequently collaborate with Puccini in 1904 for Madama Butterfly): Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

By January 1896 the first drafts of the libretto had been completed. Like Verdi before him, Puccini followed the writing of the libretto very closely and fought to obtain a more simple language. At times he behaved like a tyrant, playing on the inevitable rivalry between his two librettists so that they would give their very best. He was clearly often right. He demanded the removal of a long passage where Cavaradossi, in Act III, looks back on his life and his art: Puccini considered that, confronted by his imminent death the artist could only think of Tosca. Thus, posterity acquired one of the most beautiful arias in the tenor repertoire: “E lucevan le stelle”.

The orchestration took place during the summer of 1898, and Puccini completed the final details. For instance, at the beginning of Act II the ball given by the Queen of Naples, Maria Carolina, can be heard in the distance. To illustrate this episode he chose a gavotte on a basso by Corelli, written by Puccini’s younger brother Michele who had died in 1891 in Rio de Janeiro.

In early January 1899 Puccini met with Sardou in Paris and attended a rerun of the play, Sarah Bernhardt, of course, playing the title role. He was still hesitating over the ending of his work and had difficulty in accepting the dramatist’s view, who, he wrote, “wants this poor woman to die whatever the cost!”. In addition, he was annoyed by the “historical-topographical-panoramic” inaccuracies of the decor, which placed the Tiber between Saint Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant’Angelo. For Sardou this was a minor detail… As indicated on the signed manuscript, the opera was completed in Torre del Lago on 29 September 1899 “at 4:15am” (in fact, the prelude of Act III, with the shepherd’s song, was still missing). For an opera set in Rome, it was paramount that the premiere take place at the Teatro Costanzi (opened in 1880). The event was scheduled on 14 January 1900 in a highly charged atmosphere, due to demonstrations against the anticlerical character of the opera. A few minutes before the curtain went up the conductor, Leopoldo Mugnone, was informed of a bomb alert and he was instructed to start playing the national anthem if the bomb exploded… No such thing occurred and, despite the criticism on the part of some reviewers who considered there were too many acts of torture and violent deaths, Tosca was a huge success: twenty-one curtain calls and five encores.

 

Claire Delamarche, translated by Mary McCabe

The score

Based on a historical event, Sardou’s play takes place in October 1800. A few months earlier the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, had seized Rome from the French Directory and overthrown its short-lived Roman Republic. It is in this tense context that the tragedy of Tosca and Mario was to unfold.

The commentators highlighted Sardou’s indebtedness to Shakespeare’s Othello: Tosca’s jealousy makes her Scarpia’s plaything, just as Othello’s jealousy makes him Iago’s plaything. And like Desdemona, Mario is the sacrificial victim of a drama that he was unaware of. Sardou acknowledged this debt, and Puccini and his librettists also appropriated it for Scarpia’s declaration at the end of Act 1: “Iago had a handkerchief, and I a fan to drive a jealous lover to distraction!” Puccini clearly had in mind the opera that Verdi had drawn from Shakespeare’s play, premiered in Milan in 1887. Tosca’s abrupt introduction, concise and irregular verses, dark colours, the powerful orchestration by blocks of strings or brass, all of these remind us of Otello: the atmosphere in Tosca is in stark contrast with the scintillating Manon Lescaut, the fragility of La bohème, the languid tremors of Madama Butterfly, and are an obvious reflection of Verdi’s masterpiece. Scarpia is carved from the same stone as Iago, black and sharp. Both characters sing only snatches of themes, and their rare lyrical flights are almost howls. Any sudden sweetness smells of venom.

Puccini was obsessive when finalizing certain details. He badgered a friend into contacting priests and bishops he knew to obtain from them a brief response that could be “muttered” by the assembly of canons and the congregation before the Te Deum, at the end of Act 1. This response was supposed to refer to the event celebrated by the hymn, namely the fake news of the French debacle at Marengo. Their quest was unsuccessful and it was the composer himself who finally discovered a suitable prayer from one of his readings, Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini [Our help is in the name of the Lord]. In addition, Puccini travelled all the way to Rome to prepare the opening of Act III. In the early morning he climbed up to the terrace of Castel Sant’Angelo to hear for himself the effect produced by the morning peal of bells at St Peter’s Basilica and the surrounding churches, and from a local librarian he obtained the lyrics of an authentic traditional chant of Campania, which he used for the charming lament of the young shepherd. This attention to detail was coupled with a rhythm of rare density. Inspired by the literary and musical verismo movement, Tosca is above all an opera of action, whose intrigue unfolds in real time, over less than twenty-four hours. Several times the words fall silent to make way for kinds of pantomimes, specified in the score with strict directions. The most impressive of these silent scenes is the assassination of Scarpia, where Tosca pronounces just one sentence, but so intense and full of meaning: “Before him all Rome trembled!” The rhythm freezes momentarily, in the same way it freezes during the two principal arias of the score which are the most Verdian pieces ever written by Puccini: Tosca’s prayer (“Vissi d’arte”, Act III) resembles Leonora’s prayer in La forza del destino (“Pace, pace”), and Mario’s twilight aria (“E lucevan le stelle”, Act III), like Alvaro’s aria in the same Forza (Act III), is introduced by a magnificent clarinet solo. Two small islands of beauty in an opera of battles and blood.

 

Claire Delamarche, translated by Mary McCabe