She lived for art
and died for love.

Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 8 PM
Tuesday, November 23 at 7 PM
Friday, November 26 at 8 PM

Sung in Italian with projected English translations.

Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Directed by Valerie Kuinka
Conducted by Tyrone Paterson

Based on Victorien Sardou’s drama, “La Tosca”

The Story

In Napoleonic Rome of 1800, Floria Tosca, a celebrated opera singer, seduces all with her voice, but loves only one man, Mario Cavaradossi, a painter. This fills the sinister Baron Scarpia, the Chief of Police, with jealousy.

Cavaradossi is hiding a political fugitive and Tosca is drawn into a web of danger and deceit by Scarpia, who abuses his power to force the passionate singer to betray her lover’s secret. When Cavaradossi is imprisoned and faces death, Tosca will stop at nothing to save him. She has her revenge on Scarpia, but realizes too late that she has been double-crossed.

The Music

Highlights

Features some of Puccini’s most deeply affecting music.

Cavaradossi’s “Recondita armonia”
“Te Deum”
Tosca’s “Vissi d’arte,” the
opera’s most famous aria
“E lucevan le stelle,” Cavaradossi’s farewell to Tosca

View full synopsis»

OPERA MATTERS: TOSCA

By Robert Vineberg, Manitoba Opera, Board of Trustees3

A look at the background to the operas produced by Manitoba Opera and what was happening in the world and in Winnipeg at the time of those operas were first produced.

Why Would the Story of Tosca appeal to Puccini?

Giacomo Puccini, born in 1858, grew up with the newly united Italy. However, by the end of the 19th Century, the initial hopes of a new type of country and a new nationality had been tempered by the indolence of the Italian monarchy, continued political influence of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the corruption, cynicism and inefficiency of the Italian Parliament. There was an almost instinctive wistfulness for the republican promise of the Napoleonic era. The rather crude play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou would have appealed to Puccini as it described the promise of a sectarian republic, based upon the revolutionary principles of liberté, égalité et fraternité.

(more...)

View the accompanying photos

1. Sant Andrea Della Valle Facade

2. Sant Andrea Della Valle Interior

3. Teatro Argentina 1826 Facade

4. Teatro Argentina Interior

5. Teatro Argentina Interior Old

6. Farnese Today

7. Farnese 18th century engraving by Guiseppe Vasi

8. Castel Sant Angelo Rome

9. Castel Sant Angelo Rome 18th century painting