Tosca

Tosca is arguably the most beloved of all Puccini operas by self-progclaimed opera lovers. It has drama, passion, art and murder. Puccini was, as were most contemporary composers, influenced by Richard Wagner when he composed Tosca. This opera is through-composed, meaning the arias, recitatives, and action are composed and created as a whole that cannot be broken into distinct parts. Another Wagnerian influence is the use of leitmotifs to help identify different characters musically.

Stage performances always have a built-in tension as audience members and performers alike await the finaly moments of the opera when Tosca curses Scarpia as she hurls herself off the parapet of the Castelo Sant'Angelo and plummets to her death.

Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome

While not as established a curse as upon "The Scottish Play", Tosca has had more than its fair share of mishaps, some light-hearted and others not so much. Funny #1: One Tosca (British soprano Eva Turner) leapt off her parapet onto an overly springy mattress and bounced back up into the view of the audience. Funny #2: In one production, children were used as the firing squad soldiers who execute Cavaradossi. Their stage direction was to "follow Tosca off stage". So, when the soprano leapt off the parapet, the young soldiers dutifully jumped off after her, one-by-one. In yet another production, the supernumeraries playing the soldiers had instructions to shoot the person on stage. But both Cavaradossi and Tosca were there. They shot Tosca.

Among the less humorous, one Tosca at the Vienna State Opera missed the mattress and broke her leg. Similar occurrence in Minnesota (both legs) by Elizabeth Knighton-Printy. And Tito Gobbi tells of having to whisper from the floor as the dead Scarpia to severely myopic Maria Callas to direct her safely off the stage. In yet another Gobbi/Callas production, the stage knife blade failed to retract and Callas did in fact stab Gobbi. Fortunately, not fatally.