Tosca - Program Notes  April 26, 2003

By Composer in Residence Bruce Brown 

            Welcome to the theater!  Tonight’s performance by the JSO will be a truly unique experience for a subscription concert: a complete performance of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca.  The powerful intensity of this dramatic masterpiece was apparently too much for some critics.  It was panned by many at first.  One writer even described it as "that shabby little shocker."  Such an attitude is hard to imagine for the legion of fans that have made it one of the most popular and often performed operas of all time.

The family of Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini clearly believed in long names!  Puccini was born three days before Christmas, 1858, in the city of Lucca in Tuscany.  He was the fifth of seven children, and heir to a long line of famous musicians in the Puccini family.  The city fathers expected the young boy to continue the family tradition as organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral of San Martino, so much so that when his father died in 1864, they decreed that Giacomo’s uncle Fortuno should take over the post, but only until six-year-old Giacomo had enough training to take over.

            When he was eighteen Puccini fell in love with opera after traveling eighteen kilometers on foot to see a performance of Verdi’s Aidi in Pisa.  He had found the passion for his illustrious career.  In 1880 the twenty-two year old began studies at the Milan Conservatory in 1880, even though he was over the age limit.  He scored so well on the entrance exams that he was immediately placed in the senior composition class.

            His career as an opera composer got off to a fast start in 1882 with a work called Le Villi, which was written during his student days.  The opera caught the attention of the publisher Giulio Ricordi and was accepted for performance at the world-famous Teatro della Scala.  His second work, Edgar, was a disaster.  His career almost floundered, but Puccini wasn’t one to give up.  He worked harder - and took greater care in choosing the librettists he worked with. 

            His third work, Manon Lescaut (1893) was a tremendous success, and Puccini quickly became world famous.  "I think I understand well the operatic language and the operatic stage.” He said, “I'm sure I'll succeed in this art."

            And he certainly did.  His operas are some of the most famous and beloved works in the genre. When many people think of opera, they think first of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, or certainly, Tosca.  The unforgettable Nessun dorma from Puccini’s Turandot made such a sensation at the original “Three Tenors” concert in 1990 that it was adopted as a theme song by the soccer players in the world cup matches that followed.  Puccini’s passionate melodies have appeared in dozens of movies including Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck, A Room With a View and Hannah and Her Sisters.

            Tosca is based on a French play, La Tosca, written by Victorien Sardou for the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt.  The story, which takes place in a seventeen-hour span, is based on an incident that really happened.  It’s possible to pinpoint the date of the action because the Battle of Marengo, which figures prominently in the opera, was fought on June 14^th of 1800. 

The French Revolutionary Wars were raging.  Napoleon had swept into Italian territories and established a “Roman Republic,” but Queen Maria Carolina allied her forces with the British, Russians and Austrians and drove the French out.  One of the revolutionary leaders in Napoleon’s republic was Cesare Angelotti, who was imprisoned by the Queen’s secret police under the leadership of Baron Vitellio Scarpia.  When Angelotti escaped from captivity he hid in a chapel and was discovered by an artist, Mario Cavaradossi, who was implicated as an accomplice.

Visitors to Rome can see the Castel Sant'Angelo where Angelotti was held in captivity.  The Argentine Theater where Floria Tosca performed is about 200 yards away. It’s less than a mile to the church of Sant'Andrea delle Valle where Angelotti hid in the chapel.

Even though Sardou’s characters, setting, and the broad outlines of the story are authentic, the playwright had little interest in its political implications.  He built his drama around the crushing plight of a woman forced to accept the attentions of a vile suitor in order to save the life of a man she loves.

            Puccini became interested in the story after seeing a performance of Sardou’s play in 1889, but another composer, Alberto Franchetti, was already working on an operatic version.  When Franchetti dropped his project Puccini eagerly took up the task, along with librettist Luigi Illica, who was helped by Sardou himself.  The opera was finished eleven years after Puccini’s initial interest, and the first performance was given in Rome on Jan. 14, 1900.

            The music of Tosca contains some of the most glorious moments in all of opera, and there are some marvelous anecdotes from the production.  One day in rehearsal the famed soprano Maria Jeritza slipped of the couch and sang Tosca’s aria Vissi d'arte on the floor.  Puccini loved it, and the piece has been performed that way many times over the years.  When the tenor who was supposed to sing Cavaradossi dropped out, Puccini auditioned another tenor for the role.  After hearing him sing Recondita armonia, Puccini asked "Who sent you to me? God?"  That tenor was the legendary Enrico Caruso.