Tosca

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Image courtesy of the Liceu.

Floria and Mario are in love and determined to defend their free love affair. But the combined effects of Floria's jealousy and religious and political oppression bring all three protagonists to a tragic end. 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.

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.

First performed in Rome in 1900, Tosca relates how a prima donna's suspicions determine her lover's fate. The ageless heroine Tosca is a turn-of-the century femme fatale but also the embodiment of the committed modern woman. She clashes with Scarpia, the ruthless, sadistic police chief who has one fatal weakness:  the diva herself. The demoniacal opening chords become the Leitmotiv of their violent exchanges in the second act.

This new version, first seen at La Monnaie, was coproduced by the Gran Teatre del Liceu in partnership with other opera houses. In it the Spanish stage director Rafael R. 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.

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