TOSCA by Puccini

Article written by Saverio Pacchioni

When Puccini watched the play Tosca by V. Sardou in Florence, he fell so in love with the subject that he immediately decided to set it to music, and he subsequently went ahead in composing it, free from the usual doubts and second thoughts. Tosca has been successful ever since its debut and, together with Carmen, Traviata, Bohème and a few others, it is still one of the most staged operas in the international repertoire.

Tosca is part of the Verismo movement, the Italian equivalent in literature and musical theater of Realism or Naturalism in Europe. Verist opera is characterized by the choice of subjects that are taken from history or real life and that have strong emotional impact; it is also characterized by a kind of music that, following the example of Wagner, renews its shapes and abolishes the traditional distinction between vocal and acted parts in favor of continuous melody and song.

In Tosca, the action takes place in Rome at the time of France’s European expansion, which, on the pretext of ‘exporting’ French revolutionary achievements, aimed at political hegemony and economic exploitation. The young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, was appointed as a commander of operations in Italy, and who soon proved his extraordinary qualities. In 1798, Pope Pius VI was taken as prisoner to France and, as a result, the Roman Republic was proclaimed. However, the following year, an Austrian-Russian coalition overthrew the Republic. Tosca begins just after the jailbreak of Cesare Angelotti, the Republic’s former consul.

The painter, Cavaradossi, helps Angelotti hide himself, but the head of police, Scarpia, finds out his complicity and interrogates him, together with his lover, the singer Tosca. He then has Cavaradossi tortured until Tosca reveals where Angelotti is in hiding. Begged by Tosca, Scarpia spares Cavaradossi’s life –he will be shot by blanks- on the condition that she gives herself to him. Tosca agrees, but as Scarpia goes to embrace her, she stabs until he is dead. Then, having rushed to Cavaradossi, she urges him to pretend to be dead after the execution. But Scarpia has lied, and when she realizes that Cavaradossi has really been shot down, she throws herself down from the walls in despair.

Therefore, it is a love and a death story, full of emotions and of coups de theatre.

In order to mark and to slow down the action, there are three very famous romanze, which are exciting intense pieces of poetry and emotion, and one of which is always strategically placed in each act: Recondita armonia, Vissi d’arte, and Lucean le stelle.

In Tosca’s background, we can catch a glimpse of a crucial element in Italian history, that is, the unfounded  hope and the consequent bitter disappointment of the élites, who are expected to receive freedom or advantage from the foreign Powers, and who end up playing their game.

As a matter of fact, a few years later, most of Italy was annexed to France, or under its control.