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Tosca is a violent drama based on Victorien Sardou's hit
play La Tosca, which was written as a star vehicle for the
famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt. In the translation from play
to opera, the action was tightened, and most of the political motivation
was cut.
Although Floria Tosca is supposed to be a beloved Roman
opera star, in reality it had been illegal for women to appear on
the operatic stage in the papal capital from the seventeenth century
until 1798—about three years before Tosca is
set. Roles written for women singers, and performed by them in other
parts of Italy, were taken in Rome by castratos (male sopranos and
altos surgically altered before adolescence so that their voices
did not break). Star castratos like Marchesi and Velluti were wildly
popular with the Roman opera-going public. Moralistic revolutionaries
banned the castratos when the Roman Republic took over in 1798. After
the fall of the Republic in 1799, the castratos returned, but the
women stayed, thus allowing singers like Floria Tosca to make their
Rome debuts.
Puccini’s Tosca is a strong dramatic
work, combining lush melodies and a gripping plot with the color,
pageantry and power of the nineteenth century Roman Catholic church.
Floria Tosca’s faith is central to her character
and enhances the contrast with Scarpia’s lechery, greed and
cruelty. Tosca has
remained one of the most popular opera in the repertoire ever since
its January 14, 1900 premiere. |
