Music by Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Transcription

1 Music by Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa Based on the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou First Performance January 14, 1900, Teatro Costanzi, Rome Study Guide for Pacific Opera Victoria s Production April / May, 2013 Pacific Opera Victoria Blanshard Street Victoria, BC V8T 5A4 Phone: Box Office: PRODUCTION PATRON: David H. Flaherty SEASON UNDERWRITERS SURTITLES SPONSOR PUBLIC FUNDING CHORUS DEVELOPMENT NRS Foundation ARTIST TRAINING EDUCATION PROGRAMS DAVID SPENCER Moss Rock Park FOUNDATION MEMORIAL FUND RAISING VOICES YOUTH PROGRAMS Koerner Foundation McLean FOUNDATION Hamber FOUNDATION Stewart FUND

2 Tosca A Melodrama in Three Acts Music by Giacomo Puccini / Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa Based on the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou First Performance January 14, 1900, Teatro Costanzi, Rome Performances April 4, 6, 10, 12, 2013, at 8 pm. Matinée April 14 at 2:30 pm Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC In Italian with English surtitles Cast and Creative Team Cast in order of Vocal Appearance Cesare Angelotti, a political prisoner... Alexandre Sylvestre Sacristan... Bruce Kelly Mario Cavaradossi, a painter... Luc Robert Floria Tosca, a celebrated singer, Cavaradossi s lover... Joni Henson Baron Scarpia, Chief of Police... David John Pike Spoletta, a police agent working for Scarpia... Michel Corbeil Sciarrone, a gendarme... Stephen Barradell Shepherd boy... Ayden Turpel-Stewart Jailer... Andy Erasmus Artistic Director... Timothy Vernon Conductor and Chorus Master... Giuseppe Pietraroia Director... Amiel Gladstone Production Designer... Christina Poddubiuk Costume Designer... Kevin Knight* Lighting Designer... Gerald King Fight Choreographer... Jacques Lemay Director, Victoria Children s Choir... Madeleine Humer Stage Manager... Sara Robb Assistant Stage Managers... Sandy Halliday, Peter Jotkus Principal Coach... Robert Holliston Soldiers, police agents, altar boys, noblemen and women, townsfolk, artisans With the Victoria Symphony, the Pacific Opera Victoria Chorus, & the Victoria Children s Choir * Original costume design for the Canadian Opera Company Production PRODUCTION PATRON: DAVID H. FLAHERTY Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 1

3 Introduction My dream of love has vanished forever... I die in despair! And never before have I loved life so much! Puccini's iconic tale of tyranny and love has electrified audiences since its première in It has all the ingredients for spectacular opera lust, jealousy, murder, suicide, an explosive love triangle, breathtaking plot twists, and an emotional steamroller of a score. Politics, art, and terror collide as the glamorous opera singer Tosca as beautiful, coquettish, and fiery as any diva must be fights to save her lover, the idealistic painter Cavaradossi, from that darkest of villains, the sadistic police chief Scarpia, who has offered her a deadly bargain her love in exchange for Cavaradossi's life. Puccini's glorious melodies, lush orchestral colours, and lyrical, heart-breaking arias ignite the ultimate theatrical experience. A taut melodrama, a shocking political thriller and a passionate love story, Tosca is raw, ravishing, and supremely operatic! Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 2

4 Synopsis ACT ONE Rome. The church of Sant Andrea della Valle. The Attavanti Chapel is on the right. To the left, a scaffolding, a dais, and easel supporting a large picture covered by a cloth. Beside the easel are painter s materials and a basket of food. Cesare Angelotti, a political prisoner who has just escaped from the prison at the Castel Sant Angelo, enters the empty church. Catching sight of a pillarshrine containing an image of the Virgin, he quickly begins to search beneath the feet of the image, finally locating a key that will open the gates of the Attavanti Chapel (his sister is the Marchesa Attavanti). After Angelotti has vanished into the chapel, carefully closing the gates behind him, an old Sacristan shuffles in, mumbling to himself. The Sacristan kneels to pray as the Angelus rings; a few moments later Mario Cavaradossi enters the church to continue work on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. The unveiled canvas reveals a blonde, blue-eyed face Interior of the Church of Sant Andrea della Valle in Rome the setting for Act I of Tosca. inspired by that of the Marchesa Attavanti, whom the painter has seen but does not know. Taking out of his pocket a miniature of his beloved Floria Tosca, he compares her dark-hued beauty with that of the fair Mary Magdalene; in a phrase leading to a high B flat, he leaves us in no doubt that his only thoughts are with Tosca. The disapproving Sacristan mumbles a great deal throughout Cavaradossi s aria, and leaves the stage after observing that the basket of food has not been touched. Angelotti, thinking the church is empty, emerges from his hiding place. Seeing the painter, he exclaims, Cavaradossi! Don t you recognize me? Has prison changed me so much? Cavaradossi addresses him as Consul of the short-lived Roman Republic! This is the first indication of Angelotti s identity and is very helpful if we are to understand the political background of the story. The conversation between the two men is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Tosca. Angelotti retreats into the chapel, taking the basket of food with him. Cavaradossi has described Tosca as a very jealous woman, and as she enters the church it is apparent that her worst suspicions have been aroused: she wants to know why the church was shut and whose skirts she heard rustling from outside the door. Mario has answers to all these questions, though they don t entirely convince Tosca, especially when she sees the beautiful blonde face her lover has been painting. Cavaradossi swears that no eyes in the world are so beautiful as hers and the lovers reconcile in a surging, passionate love duet. After Tosca has left the church, Cavaradossi takes a key to his villa and gives it to Angelotti, assuring the fugitive that he will be quite safe hiding there. His instructions are interrupted by the sound of a cannon shot signaling that Angelotti s escape has been discovered. Now that the situation is even more fraught, Cavaradossi decides to see his friend to safety, and the two men leave the church together. The Sacristan enters, followed by a noisy crowd of acolytes and choristers who are excited at the prospect of a double fee for singing a Te Deum and a Gloria in honor of victory over Napoleon. At the Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 3

5 height of their raucous celebration, Baron Scarpia, Chief of Police, enters the church unexpectedly. Order is immediately restored and, at the sight of Scarpia and his henchmen, the crowd slinks quietly away, leaving only the Sacristan to be interrogated as police agents scour the church for evidence of their escaped political prisoner. A woman s fan bearing the Attavanti family s coat of arms is discovered, as is the portrait of the Marchesa Attavanti. When the Sacristan divulges the identity of the painter, Cavaradossi immediately becomes a suspect. At this point Tosca enters the church again, calling for Mario. Scarpia shrewdly takes advantage of the painter s disappearance to show Tosca the fan he s discovered with the Attavanti arms on it. As the Chief of Police expects, this arouses Tosca s jealousy. With a final and violent oath addressed to the picture You shall not have him tonight! Tosca leaves the church, determined to catch her lover in the arms of another woman. Scarpia summons his head agent, Spoletta, instructing him to take three agents and a carriage and follow Tosca wherever she goes. Distant bells begin to toll, and the congregation, which is rapidly growing, prepares for the arrival of the Cardinal. The dramatic and musical action is now almost purely religious; only Scarpia remains aloof from the pageant, reflecting on the beauty of Tosca and his plan to possess her and send her lover to his death. ACT TWO Scarpia s apartment on the top floor of the Palazzo Farnese, overlooking the courtyard. Scarpia, alone and seated at supper, reflects on the success so far of his plan to win Tosca and see Cavaradossi and Angelotti hanged at dawn. Elsewhere in the palace a gala entertainment is about to take place, featuring the celebrated singer Floria Tosca. Scarpia summons Sciarrone, one of his gendarmes, and instructs him to take a note to Tosca as soon as she arrives. Sciarrone returns with Spoletta, who has followed Tosca as ordered: the chase led him to Cavaradossi s villa where he found no signs of Angelotti, but as Cavaradossi s manner seemed very suspicious, Spoletta had him arrested and brought to the Palazzo Farnese. Cavaradossi is brought into the room for interrogation as, through the open window, a cantata is heard with Tosca singing the solo part. Scarpia cross-examines Cavaradossi, but the painter steadfastly denies all knowledge of Angelotti s whereabouts. The sound of the cantata ceases Interior of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome the setting of Act 2 of Tosca abruptly when Scarpia, irritated by the music, closes the window violently. Tosca now enters, surprised to find Cavaradossi, who whispers a warning not to answer any of Scarpia s questions. Sciarrone now opens the door of the torture chamber and Roberti, the executioner, is instructed to begin with the usual pressure. Tosca and Scarpia are left alone in the apartment. With characteristic smoothness the Chief of Police begins to question Tosca. Only with Scarpia s sinister insistence that the truth will spare Cavaradossi a most unpleasant hour does it dawn on Tosca that her lover is being tortured in the next room. Throughout the scene the contrast between Scarpia s physical torture of Cavaradossi and his equally effective emotional torture of Tosca is increasingly heightened and intensified. Scarpia orders the doors of the torture chamber to be opened Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 4

6 so that the cries of his victim can be heard. Tosca pleads with Mario to let her speak, and despite his violent refusal, she ultimately breaks down and reveals where Angelotti is hidden at Cavaradossi s villa. The painter is carried in from the torture chamber; Tosca embraces him, promising that she has not revealed any secrets. But Cavaradossi hears Scarpia saying pointedly and clearly to Spoletta: In the well in the garden Go! and realizes he has been betrayed. Immediately Sciarrone enters with the dramatic news that General Melas has been defeated in battle by Napoleon, prompting Cavaradossi to rise to his feet in triumph, crying Vittoria! His triumph is short-lived, however, and Scarpia orders him to be led away to execution. Once more Scarpia and Tosca are alone together, and the Chief of Police returns to his table to resume his poor, interrupted supper. Tosca s only concern is to save Mario, and Scarpia names his price: he must possess Tosca completely. Tosca has little time to consider this ultimatum: the sudden and dramatic sound of drums signals that Mario is being led to the scaffold. As the drumbeats recede into the distance Scarpia watches Tosca intently and silently as she delivers her famous soliloquy, Vissi d arte, vissi d amore ( I have lived by art and love ) an appeal not to Scarpia but to God for mercy. As British musician and music journalist Spike Hughes observed, this is the first moment in Tosca where the heroine really has our sympathy. Up to now she has been a rather stupid and jealous opera singer; in Vissi d arte she becomes a woman whose suffering can move us. As Scarpia prepares to renew his attack on Tosca, the news is brought to him that Angelotti has committed suicide. Everything is ready for the execution of Cavaradossi, however. At this moment Scarpia turns to Tosca, who nods her consent. In order to convince her that her lover will be reprieved, Scarpia gives the order to Spoletta: Cavaradossi will be shot rather than hanged, so that a mock execution with fake bullets can be staged in the manner of Palmieri, he adds significantly. Scarpia further agrees to give Tosca a safe-conduct pass so that she and her lover can leave the country safely and without hindrance. As Scarpia sits down to deal with the necessary paperwork, Tosca catches sight of a sharp-pointed knife on the table. While the Chief of Police is distracted, she takes it and hides it behind her dress. Scarpia fixes his seal on the safe-conduct pass and goes to embrace Tosca. As he opens his arms she stabs him in the chest, delivering one of the most famous lines in Italian opera: This is the kiss of Tosca! Only when she is sure he is dead does Tosca declare: Now I forgive him. Taking the safe-conduct pass from the dead Scarpia s hand, Tosca reflects, in another well-known line: And before him, all Rome trembled. Before leaving the apartment, Tosca reverently places two lighted candles on either side of the dead man s head, and a crucifix on his breast. ACT THREE The platform of the Castel Sant Angelo. There is a casement i.e., an armoured structure from which guns are fired on the left, also a table, bench and stool. On the table are a lantern, a large register book and writing materials. Hung on one of the walls is a crucifix with a votive lamp in front of it. On the right, the opening to a small staircase leading up to the platform. The Vatican and St. Peter s are visible in the distance. As dawn breaks over the roof of the Castel Sant Angelo, the voice of a shepherd boy is heard in the distance, accompanied by tolling church bells. Rome s Castel Sant Angelo the setting for Act 3 of Tosca Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 5

7 The scene is set by the entrance of the jailer, who exchanges a few words with a sentry guarding the platform and then awaits the escorted arrival of the prisoner. The entrance of Cavaradossi is accompanied by a tune in the orchestra which anticipates his famous aria, E lucevan le stelle. Cavaradossi is told by the jailer that he has an hour to wait until his execution, and that a priest is available if required. Cavaradossi refuses the services of the priest and instead bribes the jailer with a ring his last possession to convey a farewell note to his beloved Tosca. While writing it, he is overwhelmed with memories of their days together and, putting down his pen, reflects on the woman and the life he has loved so much and which he is now about to lose forever. To quote Spike Hughes again: E lucevan le stelle succeeds, as Vissi d arte succeeds, because it has a quality of genuine pathos which is particularly strong when it is heard in its dramatic context. No man with only an hour to live can fail to capture some of our sympathy, if only because we automatically put ourselves in his position. In the case of Cavaradossi, Puccini makes us experience the condemned man s thoughts so vividly that his agony becomes our agony and we are deeply moved by his desperately sad reflections. As Cavaradossi ends his aria in tears and buries his face in his hands, the tempo quickens and Tosca enters, escorted by Spoletta. Incredulous, Mario reads the safe-conduct document and remarks that this must have been Scarpia s first gracious act. It was his last, answers Tosca, who then tells her lover how she killed Scarpia. The story is told with great speed and efficiency, as we in the audience have, of course, already seen it. Cavaradossi agrees to go along with the escape plan directors and tenors regularly discuss the probability that he has seen through it immediately and is going through the motions to allow Tosca a few moments of joyous optimism. Tosca instructs Mario about the mechanics of this mock execution When the soldiers fire, you must fall down, and when they have gone we are saved and free! and about how to play his role Like Tosca on the stage, he remarks with a smile. The firing party enters to the accompaniment of a sinister funeral-march theme, and Spoletta gives the necessary instructions. As the volley of shots is fired, Cavaradossi falls to the ground so convincingly that Tosca exclaims, What an artist! As the funeral music dies away, the jailer, Spoletta, and the sentry exit, leaving Tosca and Mario alone. Tosca rushes to Mario telling him that everything is now safe; when he does not reply she realizes that he really is dead. This is what Scarpia had meant by an execution in the manner of Palmieri. By now it is even too late for Tosca herself to escape: Scarpia s murder has been discovered. As Spoletta charges towards her, Tosca rushes to the parapet and after shouting Oh Scarpia, before God! she hurls herself over the ledge to her death. The last melody we hear is that of Cavaradossi s E lucevan le stelle. Robert Holliston NOTE: The descriptions of the mise-en-scène that precede each act are taken from the original libretto and are not intended to describe the details of Pacific Opera Victoria s or indeed any company s set design. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 6

8 Tosca Notes on the opera s genesis Shortly after finishing Edgar (1889), Puccini saw the celebrated actress Sarah Bernhardt in Milan, playing the title role in Victorien Sardou s play La Tosca. Although he understood no French, the composer sensed that here was a powerful drama that might translate very effectively into the operatic medium. Shortly afterwards, Puccini heard that Verdi himself had flirted with the idea of setting Sardou s play, but decided finally that he was too old to take on such a project. This only fired Puccini s enthusiasm for the subject, but he hesitated to begin work and the idea was forgotten until after the launching of La boheme in News reached Puccini that another composer, Alberto Franchetti, was already hard at work on a setting of Tosca with a libretto by Luigi Illica. This slight nudge from a professional rival was all that Puccini needed, and somehow his allies Illica and publisher Giulio Ricordi convinced Franchetti that Sardou s play was too political, and therefore risky, a proposition. The hapless composer abandoned work on the project with the relief of someone who d just had a close call, and the very next day Puccini signed a contract with Ricordi for a three-act opera called Tosca. Even still, the completion of the work we know today took a long time. Puccini was always very demanding of his librettists, insisting that each line of text and every phrase of music have a direct bearing on the action. The more conventional Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa actually proposed that a formal quartet be sung while Cavaradossi is being tortured, something completely foreign to Puccini s verismo ideals 1 (but which the young Verdi may have handled with aplomb). The première of Tosca took place at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, on January 14, The drama offstage very nearly rivaled that onstage. The political scene in Rome was as volatile as at the time that Tosca was set exactly 100 years earlier. Italy had been united, but King Umberto I had been the target of several failed assassination attempts (he was successfully assassinated on July 29, 1900). Anonymous letters threatening to set off a bomb were sent to the theatre, exacerbating a situation already volatile due to rumors that the opera was politically subversive. Police searched ticket-holders outside the theatre, creating long delays; those refused entrance protested noisily, causing the conductor, Leopoldo Mugnone, to stop the music and ring the curtain down. When the audience had been calmed down (in part by the playing of the national anthem) order was restored and the curtain rose again on the beginning of the opera. In the audience were rival composers Franchetti and Pietro Mascagni (who deliberately entered his box seat after the curtain rose). There was a great ovation after Act I, and the opera s two most famous arias as well as the Act III duet were encored. But critical response was mixed: the composer s skill as an orchestrator was praised, but the violence and sadism of the plot was considered extreme, and while the opera didn t take long to establish itself in the permanent repertory, neither did the tendency of critics and academics to look down their noses at it. While La Bohème is all poetry and no plot, wrote Giacosa to Ricordi, Tosca is all plot and no poetry. Nevertheless, with the early reviews of Tosca we see for the first time references to a distinctive Puccini style, and if this style has sometimes caused the more rarified critics to reach for the smelling salts, audiences throughout the world have embraced it warmly and thoroughly. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 7

9 The opera s historical background In the year 1800, Italy was still divided into a number of smaller states, most of which were occupied by the Habsburg or Austro-Hungarian Empire. The French Revolution had provided renewed inspiration for the Italian freedom fighters. In 1798 the French conquered the church-state of Rome and created a republic, governed by consul Cesare Angelotti. However, after a short period they were forced into retreat by the army of Naples, and Rome was returned to the Pope. In May 1800 the French army crossed the Alps to do battle with the Austrian forces on a plain outside the village of Marengo. Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo and reconquered the northern parts of Italy an event included in the second act of the opera when Cavarodossi breaks into jubilant song as he's notified of it, prompting Scarpia to condemn him to death. Intellectuals and artists saw Napoleon as liberating the country from the terror of the dictatorships and as aiding the cause of a united Italy, whereas those loyal to the Pope and King, such as Scarpia, tried to keep the Austro-Hungarian dominance and protect the Kingdom of Naples by all means. Between these two extremes we find Tosca, a singer loyal to the King who has fallen in love with the freedom fighter Cavaradossi. Although the main characters Tosca, Cavaradossi, Scarpia, and Angelotti are firmly set in a precise historical time and may have been inspired in part by real individuals, they are fictional. The opera s critical reception The listener hearing Tosca for the first time must not expect to find an opera with the captivating and companionable appeal of La Bohème. There are many fine moments in Tosca, both lyrical and dramatic, and it is a work put together with all the skill of a master-craftsman of the musical theatre; but the characters very rarely excite our sympathy as they do in La Bohème. Scarpia, Tosca, and Cavaradossi are stock types, representing respectively cruelty and lust, love and jealousy, youth and enthusiasm it is significant that the moments when we do feel a little sympathy for the leading characters of the drama are when they become human beings whose feelings we can understand when we see them in situations (from which heaven preserve the rest of us) that are none the less real for being unusual. Thus writes Spike Hughes, the British jazz musician, composer, and music journalist in Famous Puccini Operas, an insightful and sympathetic study that offers something to all readers, be they student or professional musician, novice or seasoned operagoer. The American critic and musicologist Joseph Kerman was considerably less charitable and in his first book, Opera as Drama (1956), ignited controversy whilst insuring for himself a dubious immortality by referring to Tosca as a shabby little shocker. (Kerman s remark may have been intended to paraphrase critic Bernard Shaw s response to the Sardou play: Such an empty-headed ghost of a shocker Oh, if it had but been an opera! ) The fact is that Puccini s operas have been the target of the most egregious and vituperative abuse virtually since they captured the public s affection and became successful. It is neither necessary nor edifying to catalogue the many pejorative remarks (mostly unsupported by anything like vigorous or enlightened debate) that have dogged Puccini (and Puccini lovers) for well over a century. But it does my heart good to enlist the support of a genuinely accomplished, experienced, deeply thoughtful and enlightened musician to share with us several very satisfying last words! Pacific Opera Victoria s upcoming production of Tosca will be our fourth: the first ran from February 17 th to 26 th, 1983 (in the McPherson Playhouse), and therefore took place almost exactly 30 years ago. In the printed program for this production I found the following message from our respected and beloved Maestro and Artistic Director, Timothy Vernon: Good taste, Auden remarked, excludes with regret. There is still the odd snob who finds in Puccini s very success and enormous popularity sufficient cause to denigrate his achievement, and Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 8

10 who when challenged to justify this unthinking reflex, drivels on for a moment about banality, potboilers, cardboard, before sputtering in a shrug and snort. Certainly, I rejoin, if your professed idea of music begins with the Missa solemnis and ends with the Late Quartets, your visits to the opera house will be few indeed, and good riddance. Now Puccini s characters, it must be said, live only when the curtain is up. (Think by contrast of Mozart s Susanna, who when once we ve seen her, steps off the stage or page and lives forever in mind and heart.) Neither is the light he sheds on their natures and fates the unerring shaft of Verdi s tragic view, cutting to the quick. Puccini s operas are firmly fixed in time and place not for him Wagner s epic sweep and cosmic struggle, his supreme and sublime pinnacles of illumination. But in his well-defined sphere, Puccini is a great master: every page of Bohème, Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot, Schicchi reveals a surety, a meticulous, specific command of technique, and exact sense of nuance, of the single colour, modulation, often the single note to make brim the eye, to tug the gut. For it is emotion, pure, eruptive, spontaneous, that is his element. And it is in this element the snob feels least comfortable. Let me adapt another favorite Auden mot to sum up my own position: the person who dislikes Puccini may, for all I know, possess some admirable quality, but I do not wish ever to see him again. Thus Maestro Vernon s evident distaste for the twin vacuums of pretentiousness and snobbery is exceeded by his deep love for the genuine artist and the art itself. Maestro Giuseppe (Joey) Pietraroia, who will conduct our upcoming production of Tosca, brought to my attention the writing of Luigi Ricci ( ), an accompanist and vocal coach who worked for several years as assistant to Puccini and who published an invaluable account of this experience. The most important lesson frequently reiterated in Ricci s book is also the simplest possible advice when working with any composer: do what the score tells you. And Puccini s scores, including Tosca, are filled with very precise details concerning dynamics, articulation, tempo, rubato, just about everything. On too many recordings of Puccini s operas these details are virtually ignored, and others added, yet when observed the composer s markings they immeasurably to the opera s power. We will all do our best to ensure that you hear these details and experience them in their proper dramatic context. Robert Holliston Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 9

11 Listening to Tosca The following musical excerpts are all available at Or you may watch them directly on Youtube (links below) In the first act of Victorien Sardou s play La Tosca, on which the opera is based, Tosca s lover Cavaradossi gives the following account of our heroine s background and character: As an artist she is incomparable but as a woman ah, the woman! This exquisite creature was picked up in the fields, as a little savage, tending goats. The Benedictines of Verona took her in, out of charity, and barely taught her to read and to pray. But she is one of those women who can quickly guess whatever they do not know. The convent organist was her first music teacher, and she profited so well from his lessons that at the age of sixteen she had already become something of a local celebrity. People would come to hear her sing on holidays, and Cimarosa, 1 brought there by a friend, took it into his head to win her away from God. The monks, however, were unwilling to yield her to the devil. It was a fine struggle. Cimarosa contrived conspiracies and the convent resorted to intrigues. All Rome took sides so much so that the late pope had to intervene. He had the girl brought before him and, after hearing her sing, patted her on the cheek, saying: Go your way, my child! You will move every heart as you have moved mine. You will make people shed gentle tears and this, too, is a way of praying to God! Four years later she made a triumphant debut in Paisiello s 2 Nina and since then she has sung in Milan, in Naples, in Venice wherever she sings, they want no one but Tosca. Our affair began right here at the Argentina 3 where she is singing at present. It was one of those meetings where two people feel they belong to each other on first sight I know of only one fault she has: it is an insane jealousy that cannot help but disturb our happiness. Of course there is also her excessive religious devotion, but love and religion do get along fairly well. Later, in the same conversation, Cavaradossi gives his reasons for not wanting Tosca to know of his plans to help the escaped political prisoner, Angelotti: However little risk there may be in telling her, there is even less in saying nothing, and right away we eliminate questions, worries, nervousness especially her ill humor on seeing me protect a criminal such as you. For, as far as she is concerned with her royalist tendencies you will be nothing better than that! Above all consider that she is devout, and that the confessional is a most dangerous guardian of secrets Besides, the only truly discreet woman is one who knows nothing! Tosca s insane jealousy rather more than her devoutness is abundantly evident in the first act, and Cavaradossi s well-reasoned decision not to involve her is understandable. But it has unfortunate consequences. Baron Scarpia is able to take advantage of Tosca s two main weaknesses: her jealousy and her love for Mario. In the second act he forces her to listen to the anguished moans of her lover as he is being tortured in the next room; inevitably and quickly she reveals the hiding place of Angelotti and thereby proves Cavaradossi s complicity in his escape. The only way Tosca can save her lover s life is to submit to Scarpia s lust. Listen to the marching soldiers, he tells her, they are accompanying the workers who are about to erect the gallows where your lover will be hanged in a very few hours. It is at this point that Tosca, driven to despair, embarks upon the eloquent lament known in Italy as La Preghiera di Tosca but elsewhere simply by its first words: Vissi d arte. This aria consists of a mere thirty-seven measures and interrupts the plot rather than moving the action forward, but it is crucial to the opera because it allows us at last to feel a measure of sympathy for a heroine who has, up until now, been portrayed as flighty, silly, and unreasonable. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 10

12 I have lived for art and for love, and I did not harm a living soul! Secretly I relieved many miseries Always with sincere faith. my prayers arose in church. Always with sincere faith, I gave flowers for the altars. In this hour of sorrow, why, Lord, am I rewarded like this? I gave jewels to adorn the mantle of the Madonna, and I gave my singing to the stars and the heavens, which, because of my singing, smiled more beautifully In this hour of suffering, why, Lord, ah why do you reward me like this. One of the most celebrated of twentieth-century Toscas was Maria Callas ( ); it was with this role, in a production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden directed and designed for her by Franco Zefferelli, that Callas ended her opera career in By this time many critics and opera lovers were discussing openly the diva s vocal decline, and details of her private life were keeping tabloid journalists busy. Fortunately for posterity, a concert given in Paris in December, 1958, concluded with the opera s second act, featuring the unique partnership of Callas and the baritone Tito Gobbi ( ). For me, the greatness of this performance in dramatic immediacy, overwhelming musicality, ferocious concentration and (yes!) sheer vocal splendor makes discussion of minor blemishes utterly irrelevant. All of this film is available on YouTube, but I m including here only the performance of Vissi d arte 4 : Another film of Callas in the role, again with Gobbi as Scarpia, was made in London in 1964: For sheer vocal beauty and warmth allied to musicality, intelligence, and great personal magnetism it s hard to equal, let alone surpass, the wonderful Leontyne Price (b. 1927), seen here in concert: For a more recent embodiment of the role (Covent Garden, July 2011) here is Angela Gheorghiu (b. 1965): Finally, from Maria Callas 1964 performance, here pathos gives way to desperate ferocity in the murder scene. The dramatic intensity of Callas' performance is absolutely thrilling. The other popular aria from Tosca is Cavaradossi s soliloquy E lucevan le stelle, sung in Act Three. Now a political prisoner condemned to die in one hour, Mario has bribed the jailer so that he can write one last time to Tosca. In this aria, he contemplates the woman he loves and the life that he now has to give up just as he s learned to appreciate its value: The stars were shining, And the earth was scented. The gate of the garden creaked And a footstep touched the sand... Fragrant, she entered And fell into my arms. Oh, sweet kisses and languorous caresses, While feverishly I stripped the beautiful form of its veils! Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 11

13 Forever, my dream of love has vanished. That moment has fled, and I die in desperation. And I die in desperation! And I never before loved life so much, Loved life so much! The main melody of the aria is first heard in the clarinet; the singer s first line is sung to a series of repeated notes. This is a familiar Puccini pattern, employed also in Che gelida manina in La Bohème. One of the 20 th century s greatest tenors, Franco Corelli ( ) excelled in the role of Cavaradossi, recording it with both Maria Callas and Birgit Nilsson. Here is a performance from A later Corelli performance, in colour but missing the opening solo clarinet line: Puccini considered casting the young and rapidly-rising tenor Enrico Caruso ( ) as Cavaradossi but decided to go with an older, more experienced artist, Emilio de Marchi ( ). Of course Caruso became one of the greatest singers and most famous celebrities of his day and was the first bona fide recording star. This recording, made on November 6, 1909, is not Caruso s first of this aria, but the earlier one, made in October 1903, was accompanied only by piano: To conclude with a video that I stumbled across while surfing YouTube, we have what was for me a very pleasant surprise. It seems impossible that a tenor could achieve great and lasting renown and be cited as an influence by such important younger artists as José Carreras and Placidò Domingo having learned and appeared in only a couple of operatic roles, but such is the strange fate of Mario Lanza ( ). A few legitimate live performances garnered Lanza the praise of conductor Serge Koussevitsky and critic Claudia Cassidy. The great soprano Licia Albanese (b. 1913), who appeared with Lanza on film in an excerpt from Verdi s Otello, said: I had heard all sorts of stories about Mario. That his voice was too small for the stage, that he couldn't learn a score, that he couldn't sustain a full opera; in fact, that he couldn't even sing a full aria, that his recordings were made by splicing together various portions of an aria. None of it is true! He had the most beautiful lirico spinto voice. It was a gorgeous, beautiful, powerful voice. I should know because I sang with so many tenors. He had everything that one needs. The voice, the temperament, perfect diction.... Vocally he was very secure. All he needed was coaching. Everything was so easy for him. He was fantastic! Although Lanza, still in his twenties, was beginning to receive serious offers from major opera houses, by 1949 he was engulfed in the Hollywood star-making machinery, and his subsequent erratic performance record and litany of personal troubles are too well-known and sad to relate here. However, if he didn t actually play Cavaradossi on stage, he did record the character s famous aria, and I hope you will find it as thrilling a revelation as I did (there is also a televised performance from 1954 on YouTube but it is handicapped by poor sound quality): From the beginning of Tosca we hear short themes or motives that associate themselves with different characters, activities, and emotions. It is by the neat interweaving and development of these fragmentary tunes that Puccini keeps the musical continuity of his melodramatic commentary going. Some of these, such as the anxious, rhythmically syncopated figure representing Angelotti, and the Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 12

14 sprightly, fussy little tune that so perfectly captures the Sacristan, appear only briefly and occasionally; others, such as the passionate music of Tosca and Cavaradossi s Act One love duet, will play a big part later in the opera. It is perhaps unfortunate that Scarpia is given no aria commensurate with Vissi d arte. In the words of Patrick Spike Hughes ( ): No villain of an opera surely ever had less memorable music to sing than Scarpia; on the other hand, no villain ever had such an effectively simple and dominating theme [as the three-chord motive that opens the work] for us to remember him by. If Scarpia does not have an aria, his character dominates the entire drama by way of a motive that is not so much a melody as three ominous chords, played fortissimo at the very beginning by virtually the entire orchestra: Puccini s decision to begin the opera with this motive gives us, in the words of Spike Hughes, one of the most superbly arresting beginnings of an opera to be found in the entire repertoire. It represents not only Scarpia s evil but his voracious appetite for absolute power. This theme will continue to dominate the opera even after Scarpia s death at the end of Act Two. With Pacific Opera Victoria's April 2013 production of Tosca, David John Pike makes his debut in the role of Scarpia not to mention his POV debut and his Canadian mainstage opera debut. Mr. Pike has worked with one of the greatest Scarpias ever Sherrill Milnes. Here is Sherrill Milnes as Scarpia in a 1976 production of Tosca, conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio. This is the great Te Deum scene that ends Act I. As the choir sings the Te Deum, Scarpia reflects on his plan to execute Cavaradossi and possess Tosca: Tosca you make me forget God! The act ends with a powerful restatement of the Scarpia motive. 1 Domenico Cimarosa ( ), celebrated Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school. His most celebrated masterpiece is Il matrimonio segreto 2 Giovanni Paisiello ( ), also a celebrated Neapolitan opera composer, Paisiello wrote an estimated 94 operas, including a setting of Beaumarchais The Barber of Seville 3 One of the oldest opera houses in Rome, the Argentina was inaugurated in It also features in Alexander Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo 4 I apologize in advance for the advertisements that now plague YouTube, and only hope you will find your patience rewarded Robert Holliston Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 13

15 The Composer: Giacomo Puccini Shortly before he died, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini wrote to a friend: "Almighty God touched me with his little finger and said to me: 'Write for the theatre. Remember, only for the theatre.' And I have obeyed that supreme commandment". Having accepted divine will, Puccini composed some of the most popular operas ever written, earned a few millions, gambled most of the money away at the poker table, satisfied his appetite for loose women, boats and fast cars and, most of all, exterminated the population of wild geese around his villa at Torre del Lago. This in a nutshell is the life of Puccini, who defined himself as "a mighty hunter of wild birds, opera librettos and beautiful women", and who said "Just think! If I hadn't happened to take up music I would never have managed to do anything in this world!" Opera Italiana Puccini s Youth Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born in the Tuscan town of Lucca on December 22, 1858, the fifth child and first son of Michele and Albina Puccini. He was named in honour of several of his ancestors, who had been distinguished musicians and composers, each of them holding the posts of organist of the Cathedral of San Martino and Maestro di Cappella of the Republic of Lucca, and each a respected composer. The Puccini musical dynasty began with young Giacomo s great great grandfather, another Giacomo Puccini (1712 to 1781), and was carried on by his son, Antonio Benedetto Maria Puccini (1747 to 1832), his son, Domenico Vincenzo Maria Puccini (1772 to 1815), and his son, Michele (1813 to 1864), young Giacomo s father. When young Giacomo was still a child, his father Michele died, leaving behind his pregnant 34-year-old wife Albina and seven children from 16 months to 12 years of age. In a striking example of job security, two of Michele s positions (choirmaster and Giacomo Puccini organist at the Church of San Martino and teacher at the Collegio Ponziano) were reserved for his son and heir, six-year-old Giacomo. It was fully expected that Giacomo would follow in his father s footsteps. Mamma Puccini struggled to raise and educate all of her children, in particular young Giacomo. Although he was destined to be a musician, Mamma wanted him to have a good basic education first; she would say sagely, puro musico, puro asino (pure musician, pure jackass). However, young Giacomo was an inattentive student. One of his teachers reported, He comes to school only to wear out the seat of his pants. It took him five years to scrape through the four-year elementary school curriculum. He began his music studies with his mother s brother, Fortunato Magi, a stern and forbidding man, who, not without reason, considered the young scamp lazy, disrespectful, and untalented. Albina Puccini soon found a new teacher, Carlo Angeloni, who taught harmony and composition at the Istituto Musicale Pacini. Angeloni had been a student of Michele Puccini's, was a composer himself, and loved opera. Angeloni also introduced young Giacomo to what would be a life-long hobby for him hunting. The two established quite a rapport, both musically and on the local waterfowl marshes. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 14

16 By the age of 14 Giacomo was earning a bit of money playing organ in a number of the town's churches. He would shock the congregations by slipping folksongs and hits from the latest operas (such as Verdi s Rigoletto) into his improvisations. He had other ways of using his musical talent to earn income. He took on a pupil. He played piano in the local taverns, nearby resorts, and, it was rumoured, a brothel. He stole organ pipes and sold them to support his smoking habit playing around the notes of the missing pipes in order to hide the theft. Puccini was familiar with opera; his composer ancestors had all written operas; his teacher composed operas and introduced him to the works of Verdi. Then in 1876 he and some friends walked over a dozen miles to Pisa to see the first local production of Verdi s Aïda. He was so blown away by the performance that he decided to take up writing operas. Many years later he said, When I heard Aïda in Pisa, I felt that a musical window had opened for me. He continued his musical studies in Lucca, composing mostly church music, until in 1880, with the help of a loan from his mother s cousin Nicolao Cerù and a bursary from Queen Margherita of Italy, he was able to move to Milan, the cultural capital of Italy, to study composition at the Milan Conservatory of Music. One of his teachers was the highly regarded Italian violinist and composer Antonio Bazzini, whose only opera Turanda, had flopped at Milan s La Scala opera house in Turanda was based on a play by Carlo Gozzi, which would later inspire Puccini s last opera, Turandot. Another professor, who became Puccini s mentor, was Amilcare Ponchielli, best known as the composer of the opera La Gioconda. During his three years at the Milan Conservatory, Puccini lived the life of a student, continually broke, asking Mamma for money and good olive oil, eluding creditors, outwitting landlords, going to the opera, in short, living an impoverished artistic life not unlike that evoked in his later opera La Bohème. His roommates included his younger brother Michele and the young Pietro Mascagni, who would make his name as a composer of 15 operas, the best known being Cavalleria rusticana. Puccini and Mascagni were to remain friends and rivals for many years; their wives did little to help the friendship. In 1921 Puccini s wife Elvira would be so outraged by a rumour that Mascagni would be appointed a senator before her far more deserving husband that she threatened to renounce her Italian citizenship and emigrate. The Early Operas In 1883, with the encouragement of Ponchielli, who even found him a librettist, Puccini entered a competition for a one-act opera. The opera, Le Villi, was based on the legend of the Willis, the ghosts of girls who, having died of broken hearts, exact revenge on their faithless lovers by forcing them to dance until they die of exhaustion. Perhaps the most famous retelling of this legend was the 1841 ballet Giselle. Le Villi not only did not win the competition, it wasn t even given an honourable mention, although Ponchielli himself was one of the judges. It has been suggested that Puccini s score, which he submitted right at the deadline, was so illegible the judges didn t consider it. However, Puccini s librettist, Ferdinando Fontana, put great effort into getting the opera performed and was able to secure the support of Arrigo Boito, an influential critic, composer of the opera Mefistofele, and the librettist for La Gioconda and later for Verdi s final operas, Otello and Falstaff. Boito helped collect enough money to stage Le Villi at the Teatro dal Verne, Milan on May 31, 1884, to an enthusiastic reception from audience and critics alike. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 15

17 Marco Sala wrote in L Italia, Puccini s opera is, in our opinion, a small, precious masterpiece from beginning to end. Antonio Gramolo of Il corriere della sera concurred: The virtues we encounter in Le Villi reveal in Puccini an imagination singularly inclined to melody. In his music there is freshness of fantasy, there are phrases that touch the heart because they must have come from the heart, and there is craftsmanship so elegant and refined that from time to time we seem to have before us not a young student but a Bizet or a Massenet In short we believe that in Puccini we may have the composer for whom Italy has been waiting for a long time. And, from Filippo Filippi of La Perseveranza came this: Puccini reaches the stars Poor competition panel, that threw the opera into a corner like a rag! Even Verdi took notice. The grand old man of Italian Opera, then in his 70s, wrote to a friend, I have heard the composer Puccini well spoken of. He follows modern trends, which is natural, but remains attached to melody, which is above passing fashion. Puccini also came to the attention of Giulio Ricordi, head of the powerful publishing house Casa Ricordi. Ricordi published the score and within days of the premiere offered Puccini a contract to expand Le Villi to two acts and to write a second opera, which would premiere at Milan s great opera house, La Scala. This contract meant Puccini now had a small but regular income. More important, it was the beginning of a lifelong association. Ricordi became Puccini s publisher and far more. He acted as Puccini s business manager, his mentor, his father-figure and friend; he weighed in with advice and encouragement and helped resolve the multiple disputes between Puccini and Giulio Ricordi his librettists. In the summer of 1884 Puccini s mother, who had been the bedrock of his life, died after a long illness. Around that time, Puccini had fallen in love with a certain Elvira Gemignani, a married woman and the mother of two children. Elvira left her husband and moved in with Puccini, creating a major scandal in Lucca and among Puccini s family and adding to his financial pressures for, despite the small income from Ricordi, he was not well off. Elvira brought with her the elder of her two children, her daughter Fosca. In 1886 Elvira gave birth to Giacomo s son, Antonio. The couple was not married until 1904, after the death of Elvira's first husband. Theirs was a tumultuous relationship, as stormy as any opera plot. Puccini was not a model husband; over the years he had countless affairs with other women. He called himself a mighty hunter of wild fowl, operatic librettos and attractive women. Elvira was uninterested in the arts, didn t enjoy Puccini s hunting and card-playing friends, and grew less beautiful and more jealous and suspicious over the years. She eavesdropped on Giacomo, went through his clothes, checked his mail. She even resorted to hunger strikes and to physical attacks on Giacomo and at least one of the women with whom he was involved. Puccini's second opera, Edgar, was poorly received at its 1889 premiere at La Scala. Subsequent revisions did not make it the success that Puccini, Ricordi (and Ricordi s shareholders) had hoped. Ricordi continued to support Puccini and blamed much of the failure of Edgar on the libretto by Fontana. Ricordi stood up against the demands of his shareholders that Puccini s retainer be dropped, and he encouraged Puccini to write another opera. Despite the modest allowance from Ricordi, which was an advance against future royalties, Puccini was barely scraping by, especially now that he was supporting Elvira, her daughter, and their son Antonio. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 16

18 He was also frequently ill and still in debt to Nicolao Cerù, who was asking for repayment of the loan he had given Puccini for his studies in Milan. In 1890 Puccini wrote in desperation to his younger brother, Michele, who had moved to Argentina: If you can find work for me, I will come there. And send me some money. I have few hopes here. In a later letter to Michele he said, With disaster right around the corner, it s a miracle if I can get to the end of the month. And in September I have to move. They have thrown me out of here for playing the piano at night. If you are doing well where you are, I will come there too. In the end he did not go. Michele died of yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro in Meanwhile, with Ricordi s encouragement and expert stick-handling of a succession of librettists, work proceeded on Puccini s next opera, Manon Lescaut. As the premiere approached, Puccini, now 34, knew this opera was probably his last chance to be successful and to escape the poverty in which he was living. If Manon Lescaut failed, he would have to go back to making a living as what he called a third-rate organist. Manon Lescaut: Puccini s First Hit During the three years it took him to write Manon Lescaut, Puccini went through librettist after librettist. The task of writing the libretto involved some seven people, including the composer himself and his publisher Giulio Ricordi. The librettists included Ruggero Leoncavallo, who would soon make his name as the composer and librettist of Pagliacci and who would feud with Puccini over the right to compose La Bohème. Puccini was not satisfied with Leoncavallo s efforts on Manon Lescaut, and decided to ask the well known playwright Marco Praga to take on the libretto for Manon Lescaut. Praga brought in a friend Domenico Oliva, but Puccini demanded so many changes that Praga withrew. Oliva hung on a little longer, but eventually, he too wearied of Puccini s frequent demands for changes. Now Giulio Ricordi recommended the poet and playwright Giuseppe Giacosa, and Giacosa called in a more experienced librettist, Luigi Illica, for additional help. Together they reworked the libretto, and, with contributions from Leoncavallo and Ricordi not to mention Puccini himself the work was finally completed. With so many hands in the final libretto of Manon Lescaut, the decision was made to put no one s name on the final score except that of the composer. Giacosa, Illica, and Puccini went on to form what has been called the most successful composer/librettist team of Puccini's career. Ricordi called them the Trinity. Illica and Giacosa worked on three of Puccini s subsequent operas, La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. This is not to say that Illica and Giacosa didn t find Puccini as maddening to work with as Praga and Oliva had. They were frequently at loggerheads with Puccini, and Ricordi often had to act as peacemaker. Manon Lescaut had its first performance on February 1, 1893, at the Teatro Regio, in Turin. It was an enormous hit, and the reviews were enthusiastic. In the Gazzetta Piemontese Giuseppe Depanis wrote approvingly of the robust opera of a young Italian maestro, one who has done honour to his name and to his country. Art has no boundaries, to be sure. None the less, national pride is legitimate: Last night was a good night for art and for Italy. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 17

19 Manon Lescaut quickly traveled throughout Italy and beyond. By the end of 1893 it had been seen in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, St. Petersburg, Madrid, and Hamburg. The following year saw productions in Lisbon, Budapest, Prague, Montevideo, Philadelphia, and Mexico. The opera made Puccini s reputation, and he went on to fulfill its promise with a series of masterpieces that are among the most enduring in the repertoire. The Successful Composer The stupendous success of Manon Lescaut meant Puccini could begin to live well. He could travel. He could buy the house he had rented in Torre del Lago since He was also able to buy back the house in which he was born, a sentimental gesture only, as he did not live there. Meanwhile there was the question of Puccini s next opera. Shortly before the premiere of Manon Lescaut, Puccini began considering an opera based on the story Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henry Murger. The fact that this idea was ever transformed into the great opera La Bohème is a minor miracle, given the personalities of its creators, gadfly Puccini, and frustrated librettists Illica and Giacosa, not to mention a very public spat between Puccini and his old friend and rival Leoncavallo over the rights to the opera. In March, 1893, Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo, who had helped with the libretto of Manon Lescaut, met in a café. Puccini stunned Leoncavallo by announcing that he was writing La Bohème. But Leoncavallo was also composing a La Bohème, using the very libretto he had offered Puccini on a previous occasion which Puccini had turned down at the time! They quarrelled. Each went to the press to proclaim his moral superiority, and the race was on. The two La Bohèmes eventually premiered in successive years (Puccini s first, in 1896). Although Leoncavallo s version was quite well received, it was eventually overshadowed by the enormous success of Puccini s work. Despite the rivalry with Leoncavallo, Puccini took quite a while to get down to serious work on La Bohème. He started in early 1893, but then turned his attention to the excitement of buying a bicycle, which he named Mary, and to the challenges of learning to ride. Hunting season was also a distraction. Puccini s publisher, Giulio Ricordi wrote: Puccini, Let not your passion for birds seduce you away from music. Therefore, an eye on the gunsight, but your thoughts on Bohème! In August 1893 Puccini invited librettist Luigi Illica to join him at his home, assuring him that he really was working on La Bohème; however, his charming invitation focused more on the delights of country life: I am struggling with our characters. I am working, and having a good time. I m killing vast numbers of birds while I wait to leave for Brescia, where [the soprano, Emma] Zilli will amaze everyone with her verve and kill off Manon before her time! In my house there are soft beds, chickens, geese, ducks, lambs, fleas, tables, chairs, guns, paintings, statues, shoes, velocipedes, pianos, sewing machines, clocks, a map of Paris, good oil, fish, three different qualities of wine (we don t drink water), cigars, hammocks, wife [not strictly accurate: Puccini and Elvira would not marry for 20 more years], children, dogs, cats, rum, coffee, different kinds of pasta, a can of rotten sardines, peaches, figs, two outhouses, a eucalyptus, a well in the house, a broom, all for you (except the wife). Come. Luigi Illica Giuseppe Giacosa Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 18

20 Puccini was also busy travelling to oversee various productions of Manon Lescaut and working on an opera called La Lupa, which he eventually abandoned. His mercurial flitting from project to project maddened both Ricordi (for whom time was money) and his hapless librettists. The librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, were the dream team brought in by Ricordi to rescue Puccini s first great hit Manon Lescaut, after Puccini had torn through three other librettists. Although Giacosa, Illica, and Puccini were the most successful composer/librettist team of Puccini's career, their relationship was stormy, for Puccini was maddening to work with and impossible to satisfy. Much of the credit for La Bohème s existence must go to Ricordi, that master of shuttle diplomacy, who soothed Puccini s string of browbeaten librettists and refused to accept their regular resignations. After one of the tiffs during work on La Bohème, Ricordi wrote Puccini to say, [Illica is] very annoyed with you. He has almost decided to have nothing further to do with la Bohème. He complains of having wasted much time and effort only to find himself used, cast aside, taken up again and shoved away like a dog I succeeded in making Illica go back to work But he insists that I tell you that he is going on with his work solely out of regard for me!! At one point, Illica wrote To work for Puccini means to go through a living hell. Not even Job could withstand his whims and his sudden volte-faces. I cannot keep up with his constant acrobatics. In fall of 1893 Giacosa wrote Ricordi to say he was withdrawing from the project, leaving Illica to deal with Puccini alone; Ricordi refused to accept his resignation. Giacoso too found Puccini a bear to work for, writing to Ricordi in June 1895: I m tired to death of this constant reworking, touching up, adding, correcting, cutting, pasting together again, pumping it up on the right, and paring it down on the left... I have already redone this blessed libretto three times, from start to finish, three times, and certain sections I have done four or five times... Will it really be finished? Or do I have to start again at the beginning? After three years of work, they did finally finish La Bohème (nearly). Puccini made a few more changes after the 1896 premiere! La Bohème is today considered one of Puccini s best works, as well as one of the most popular and romantic operas ever composed. However, it was not very well received when it premiered at Turin in Nor were the operas that followed immediately successful, although most are now among the most popular in the operatic repertoire. Despite their stormy working relationship with Puccini, Illica and Giacosa stuck it out with the composer, creating the libretti for his next two operas, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Puccini remained as fickle and demanding as ever; the librettists threatened to quit from time to time; and the exasperated Ricordi continued to play peacemaker. Tosca was a subject Puccini had been toying with since 1889, just after the premiere of Edgar. Based on a play which Victorien Sardou had written in 1887 for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, Tosca is full of sex, violence, torture, suicide, politics, and religion. It is perhaps not surprising that audiences liked it, while critics deplored the sexuality, violence, and brutality. While Puccini was in London for the Covent Garden premiere of Tosca, he saw a play called Madame Butterfly by American writer David Belasco. Although he understood very little of the English dialogue, he was moved by the plight of the geisha and the exotic atmosphere of the play and rushed backstage to beg for permission to use the play for his next opera. Belasco later wrote, I agreed at once and told him he Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 19

21 could do anything he liked with the play, and make any sort of contract, because it was impossible to discuss arrangements with an impulsive Italian who has tears in his eyes and both his arms round your neck. Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in February, Despite very high hopes and Puccini s belief that it was his best and most advanced opera, the first performance was a fiasco marked by hisses, catcalls, and rude comments from the audience. The reaction may have been engineered by jealous rivals of Puccini. In any event, Puccini withdrew the opera after that single performance, revised it, and unveiled the new version three months later in Brescia. It was a triumph. Ever since, the touching and gloriously melodic tragedy of the geisha who loved an American naval officer has been one of the most beloved of operas. While he was working on Madama Butterfly, Puccini was also dealing with health problems and upheavals in his personal life. He enjoyed fast cars and boats and the good life. In February 1903 he was in an auto accident his second in less than a year. This time he nearly died. He had seriously injured his leg and endured a long, painful recovery, during the course of which he was also diagnosed with diabetes. At the time Puccini had been involved in a passionate Puccini in 1902 with his first car, a De Dion Bouton. affair with a woman known only as Corinna. However, Elvira s husband died the day after Puccini s car accident. Elvira put pressure on Puccini to dump Corinna and marry her; the Puccini family and Ricordi were also urging him to marry Elvira. After Corinna threatened legal action, Puccini settled out of court. As part of the settlement he had to marry Elvira, and in January, 1904, Puccini finally married the mother of his 17-year-old son. Domestic bliss did not ensue. Elvira s jealousy over the years had all too often been well founded. In 1908 she accused Puccini of having an affair with Doria Manfredi, a servant girl who had started working for them after Puccini s car crash and had lasted longer than most servants in the tempestuous Puccini household. Elvira fired Doria but continued to accuse and threaten her and talk insultingly to Doria s mother and relatives. Eventually the girl, swearing she was innocent, committed suicide. After an autopsy proved her innocent, her family sued Elvira, and Elvira was sentenced to five months imprisonment. After an appeal, Puccini and the family settled out of court. Although the Puccini marriage nearly broke up over this tragedy, the couple eventually reconciled although Puccini persisted in his philandering and Elvira in her jealous scenes. Given Puccini s health problems and the turmoil of the Doria Manfredi tragedy, it was not surprising that six years elapsed between Madama Butterfly and the premiere of Puccini s next opera which was also based on a play by David Belasco. Puccini first saw Belasco s The Girl of the Golden West in 1907 in New York, where he was attending a Puccini festival at the Metropolitan Opera. The story of miners in the California gold rush intrigued Puccini. Puccini s long-time librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa, had died the previous year, and Puccini turned to a new librettist, Italian-American Carlo Zangarini. As was usual with Puccini s librettos, work did not proceed smoothly. When Zangarini had not completed the libretto as quickly as Puccini wanted, he brought in a co-librettist, a young poet and journalist named Guelfo Civinini. La Fanciulla del West, starring Enrico Caruso, finally premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in December 1910, with Arturo Toscanini as conductor. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 20

22 In 1912 Giulio Ricordi, who had been instrumental to Puccini s career and profoundly important as a friend and professional manager, died. Casa Ricordi was now in the hands of Tito Ricordi, who did not get along well with Puccini. Puccini s next opera was published by Ricordi s rival Sonzogno. La Rondine, the story of a love affair between a courtesan and a younger man, is more like a Viennese operetta than Puccini s other works. Although its music is charming, it is considered one of his less successful works. La Rondine was followed by a trilogy of one-act operas, Il trittico. The three operas are Il tabarro, a tragic tale of adultery and murder, Suor Angelica, the story of a nun who has had an illegitimate child, and Gianni Schicchi, a comedy of fraud and young love, which has proved the most popular of the three. Puccini then started work on his last opera, Turandot, based on a 1762 play by Carlo Gozzi. It is the gripping story of a cruel Chinese princess whose suitors must answer three riddles or be put to death, of a prince who falls in love with her, and a slave girl who loves the prince and dies to save him. On November 29, 1924, before he could finish the opera, Puccini died in Brussels of throat cancer a result of a lifetime of heavy smoking. After a large funeral in Brussels, his body was taken to Milan for a national funeral. Mussolini, who had become Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, announced his death in the Italian Parliament. Arturo Toscanini conducted the Requiem from Act 3 of Edgar. Puccini was buried at the Toscanini family tomb in Milan; two years later his remains were moved to his beloved home at Torre del Lago. Turandot, considered by many his greatest opera, was completed by Franco Alfano and premiered in April, 1926, at La Scala. At the point where Puccini s score ended, Toscanini, the conductor, stopped the performance, saying, The Opera finishes here for at this point the Maestro died. It was not until the second performance of Turandot that the version completed by Alfano was played. Puccini s twelve operas include some of the greatest masterpieces in the repertoire. Their rich melodies, complex and compelling characters, and passionate emotions made them very popular and Puccini very rich. He had a gift for creating works that were deeply theatrical, wondrously musical, and full of passion. His librettos contain painstakingly detailed stage directions, which go beyond descriptions of the setting and delve into the psychology of the characters. While his obsession for creating the perfect libretto and the perfect dramatic experience caused havoc for his librettists, the characters, particularly his heroines, continue to enthrall audiences. His great gift for melodic invention has also ensured his works a lasting place in the repertoire. Maureen Woodall Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 21

23 Interview with the Director Amiel Gladstone is a director and playwright whose work has been produced throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe. A founding member of Victoria s Theatre SKAM, Amiel has directed for many leading Canadian companies, including the Belfry, Touchstone, Caravan Farm Theatres and the National Arts Centre. We are delighted that he is making his Pacific Opera Victoria debut with our upcoming production of Tosca. You've had an extremely varied career in theater as a creator, director and performer - have you always been drawn to music as well? Yes. Some of my closest friends are musicians. Many of the plays that I've directed have included live music in them. I feel it's an intrinsic part of the live experience. Like many people I feel a bit jealous of musicians too their ability to jam with each other. I love the clear open emotion of it. What led you to the wacky world of opera? Were you taken to see operas as a child or youth? A few years back Vancouver Opera asked me if I wanted some training as a Stage Director. They felt that my theatre directing could be applicable to opera. I spent a few years training there, assistant directing a couple of shows, directing the touring productions for children and taking masterclasses. Subsequently I directed Lucia di Lammermoor there. My grandfather was an opera singer and he and my grandmother taught singing for years in Toronto, so it is in my blood a little. But my watching experience has been much more in the musical theatre world. Music theatre must present certain challenges to a director simply because some of the material is sung rather than spoken these challenges are heightened in opera because of foreign languages and strictly instrumental passages. How have you enjoyed dealing with them? Yes, although you've managed to ask me about the hardest part the foreign language. The language of music is much more emotive and intuitive. Working on something that's entirely in Italian, it can be hard to wrap my brain around it. But the challenges are what make me embrace it I like how it twists my brain around and keeps me on my toes. Is this your first go at Tosca? What is there about the story and characters that excites you? (Other than the fact that all three principals die before the last curtain...) My first Tosca. I love the intrigue at play. The power dynamic. How the love between Tosca and Cavaradossi is complicated. I like that Scarpia is appealing and repellent at the same time. I like that it can feel like an intimate drama between three main players and a huge story all at the same time. I guess it's the contradictions that I like. I really enjoyed visiting your website and reading your views about operatic and Shakespearean productions today. Can you divulge anything about your plans for Tosca, or do we have to wait until opening night? Christina and I have talked a lot about the heart of the drama and focused on the characters as much as possible. We've looked at many different versions of Rome and the actual spaces and come up with a highly theatricalized version that is beautiful and ugly. I want to create a production that appeals to purists, but with enough surprises to keep us wondering what's coming next. Again reveling in the contradictions. Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 22

24 Interview with the Villain Baritone David John Pike is making his Pacific Opera Victoria debut and singing his first Scarpia in our upcoming production of Tosca. Robert Holliston interviews Mr. Pike. You are working overseas a lot these days - what led you to settle in Luxembourg? Business originally brought me to Luxembourg and love has kept me there. I am a reformed Chartered Accountant, and was originally sent to Luxembourg to run a small practice. Soon after my arrival I met Josiane, a winegrower's daughter, on the banks of the Moselle, and have since "gone native". We live right on the German border overlooking the vineyards and the river, but at the same time are a couple of hours' drive away from any number of major European cities, and an hour's flight from all the capitals. My only complaint is that it's too far from Canada - although, you know these days, it often seems easier and cheaper for me to get to Canada from Europe than it is to fly across Canada! Scarpia is generally considered a fairly dramatic role - how are you enjoying its challenges? Would you consider it totally different from, say, Marcello, or more of an extension? Yes, "fairly dramatic" is one way of describing it. Otherwise stated, it is a bloody big sing, and the character is downright evil, so that can also be draining. But in short (and this is in no way a reflection of inherent evilness in David!) I'm loving Scarpia. Of course, the role was daunting at first, but soon it came "into my voice," and what I love about it is that it sits in a comfortable range somehow, even though it's fairly high - Puccini was clever in writing in a "preserving style" for my Fach, I guess! In contrast, good old Marcello is just a swell guy, whether from Mimí's, Rudolfo's or the other guys' perspectives. I like singing a Marcello or Schaunard because of the jovial camaraderie and later the empathetic love and care they demonstrate for both leads. In vocal terms, I like your idea of "extension" as Scarpia is vocally somehow a "bigger" Marcello, as the range is similar and of course those delicious Puccini lines are there. The other practical challenge is that Scarpia is on stage the whole of Act 2 (directly after the huge Te Deum scene) with little chance for a "singer moment" in the wings. Old Marcello has some big lines, but he gets to put his feet up in between! How are you looking forward to playing this remarkably villainous character? I'm very much looking forward to it. My aim is to offer a slightly more "elegant" (and therefore perhaps even more threatening?) Scarpia, with a bit of contrast so he isn t just constantly barking orders. Perhaps he does have a moment or two where he really does feel something for Tosca apart from the obvious... or does he? Maybe he's simply misunderstood? In any case, the score has some moments when a real legato and bit of seduction can take the place of the otherwise barking, harsh, commanding, psychopathic, misogynistic murdering rapist! Is there a particular Scarpia from the past that has inspired you? Where to start? Of course, George London's elegant Scarpia and noble sound is inspiring, and Cornell McNeil's enormous impression is an obvious reference. Bryn Terfel's recent interpretation in the 2011 Royal Opera House production was simply outstanding, particularly his acting. I've also heard a superb recording of Gerald Finley's Tre sbirri... in English, which is superb. I've been very fortunate to work with one of the greatest Scarpias ever in Sherrill Milnes, who has generously taught me a great deal Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Tosca 23