TOSCA OPERA KC HOW TO

After all: when passion and politics collide, love can prove a fatal weakness.Ĭhristof Loy’s production of Tosca sets the roller coaster story of love, lust, murder and intrigue against a production dripping in operatic grandeur, with Puccini‘s beautiful score conducted by one of Britain’s finest young conductors, Leo Hussain. With her artist beau Cavaradossi ( Adam Smith) competing for her affections against the sadistic police chief Scarpia ( Noel Bouley), Tosca’s ( Sinead Campbell Wallace) story becomes intertwined with the tumultuous political landscape of Rome itself.Īlready the talk of the town, opera singer Tosca becomes increasingly desperate to stop Scarpia’s plans and must resort to deadly means to wrest back her freedom from those who would suppress it. Production photos by Cory Weaver for LOKC, 2015.Compromise is for the weak: and Tosca is nothing of the sort. Victorien Sardou's drama La Tosca was first suggested as a possible subject in 1889, but Puccini wrote and premiered two other operas (Manon Lescaut and La bohme) before settling his energies on Tosca, which finally premiered in January 1900. Each bell captures the sound of a specific church heard from the top of the actual Castel Sant’Angelo, and each with Puccini’s fastidious description of how close or far away they should sound. Puccini's Tosca had the longest gestation period of any of his operas. Far from a detail, but I am always overcome by the eleven bells that ring out across Rome at the beginning of Act 3. But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone, even opera fans, who have seen the composer’s Edgar on the stage. Please contact Ticketing & Patron Service at (816) 471-7344 if you believe you are seeing this message in error. Even those with a casual acquaintance with opera have probably seen or heard something from Puccini’s Tosca, Madama Butterfly or La Boheme. Her return to faith is poignant, especially coming so soon after “Vissi d’arte,” an aria about the abandonment she feels from God after a lifetime of charity and devotion. 2:00PM Arts District Garage Parking - Tosca Tickets are currently unavailable. With The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, roles include Spoletta in Tosca, Pang in Turandot, and Dr. The sudden and brief Act 2 reappearance of the Act 1 theme of the statue of the Madonna. These two lonely, heartfelt measures find Tosca at her most vulnerable, on the verge of capitulation.

TOSCA OPERA KC HOW TO

With all his wonderful specificity, Puccini is still providing options for the performer’s imagination here, for the actor to decide how to play his last moments of musical and emotional unison with Tosca. The tiny indication of triste (sad) in the score that Puccini wrote over Cavaradossi’s line in Act 3 about his simulated death: “Don’t be afraid, for I will fall instantly and naturally.” The triste indication gives the actor just enough legitimacy, if he chooses, to play the final scene as if he knows that Scarpia would never let him live, that Tosca’s hope is a fantasy. That small adjustment reveals so much about Puccini’s understanding of Scarpia: not merely violent or ambitious, but one who experiences cruelty and dominance as pleasure, one for whom being hated and being loved are synonymous. Complete video version of Giacomo Puccini's opera 'Tosca' recorded in The National Opera of Ukraine, featuring Oleksandr Pushniak's house debut as Scarpia.C. From a moment that could be construed as a question or a challenge, it unmistakably becomes a moment of relish. In one of his few direct changes to Illica and Giacosa’s libretto, Puccini changed Scarpia’s Act 2 line to Tosca “Tu mi odii?” ( “You hate me?”) to “Come tu m’odii!” ( “How you hate me!”). Through his exacting, revealing specificity, Puccini asks profound questions about the nature of fascism and explores how we maintain our authenticity when fighting against corruption.Ī few details I found meaningful during our creative process: These details obsess singers and conductors alike: Tito Gobbi claimed that he dressed up as Scarpia hundreds of times in his house in front of three mirrors until every aspect of his character – each eyebrow arch, cape flip, and snarl – was in his control.

Yet beyond its histrionics, the score is a mine of meticulous character detail. The great Austrian maestro Herbert von Karajan once remarked that all conductors should perform Tosca once a year to satisfy their primal instincts. Conducting Tosca, with its molten intensity, is like an opulent form of wilderness therapy. Tosca is one of Puccinis most popular operas, ranking eighth on Opera Americas 2008 list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America.

Tosca opera kc