Puccini's Tosca at Castello St'Angelo. by breughel
I love classical music but I'm more oriented to chamber music than to opera. For me the perfection of music results of three instruments: Piano, Violin and Violoncello i.e. the classical trio.This said Puccini and his Tosca are great moments of music and song although I am a bit lost with the libretto of Puccini's Tosca. I understand that this happened after Napoleon's Roman Republic and the restoration of the Popes powers in Rome but I'm getting confused with the political prisoner Angelotti and the painter Cavaradossi and their sentiments for the diva Floria Tosca.
Clear for me is the fact that baron Scarpia, a prelate and chief of the secret police is a sadist who wants to conquer Tosca.
Here we move to Castel St'Angelo to hear some of the best arias of Puccini on the upper terrace of the Castel. Nobody can forget the sublime "E Lucean le Stelle."
Meanwhile Tosca stabbed Scarpia with a knife, Cavaradossi has been tortured and a firing squad shoots him. Now, this is the crux of the matter, the bullets should have been blank but they were real (tricky Scarpia!).
Here the desperate Tosca jumps of the ramparts of the Castel St'Angelo.
I can assure you that this scene is most difficult to play.
My wife saw this opera performed at the Terme di Caracalla. La Tosca jumped over the fake rampart but instead of lying quietly on the other side until the end of the opera she stand up before the end provoking a general laughter in the public.
"Gloires et servitudes de l'Opéra!"
Great graphic art was the original poster by Adolfo Hohenstein for the first production of this opera in 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.