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Libretto in Italian by Luigi Illicia and Guiseppe Giacosa
Based on La Tosca, a play by Victorien Sardou
Premiere: Rome, January 14, 1900 The Setting:
Rome: June, 1800
ACT I. Cesare Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner, rushes into the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle to hide in the Attavanti chapel. He hides as Mario Cavaradossi, a painter, enters to work on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. Taking out a miniature of the singer Floria Tosca, he compares her raven beauty with that of the blonde Magdalene. Angelotti ventures out and is recognized by Cavaradossi, who gives him food and hurries him back into the chapel as Tosca is heard calling outside. Forever suspicious, she jealously questions him, then prays, and reminds him of their rendezvous that evening at his villa. When she has gone, Cavaradossi summons Angelotti from the chapel; a cannon signals that the police have discovered the escape, so the two flee to Cavaradossi’s villa. Baron Scarpia, chief of the secret police, enters in search of Angelotti. When Tosca comes back to her lover, Scarpia shows her a fan with the Attavanti crest, which he has just found. Thinking Cavaradossi faithless, Tosca tearfully vows vengeance and leaves as the church fills with worshipers. Scarpia, sending his men to follow her to Angelotti, schemes to get the diva in his power.
ACT II. In the Farnese Palace, Scarpia anticipates the sadistic pleasure of bending Tosca to his will. The spy Spoletta arrives, having failed to find Angelotti. She enters just as her lover is being taken to an adjoining room to be tortured. Unnerved by Scarpia’s questioning and the sound of Cavaradossi’s screams, she reveals Angelotti’s hiding place. Cavaradossi shouts his defiance of tyranny and is dragged to prison. Scarpia suggests that Tosca yield herself to him in exchange for her lover’s life. They learn that Angelotti has killed himself. Tosca, forced to give in or lose her lover, agrees to Scarpia’s proposition. No sooner has Scarpia written a safe-conduct for the lovers than Tosca snatches a knife from the table and kills him.
ACT III. The voice of a shepherd is heard as church bells toll the dawn. Cavaradossi awaits execution at the Castel Sant’Angelo; he bribes the jailer to convey a farewell note to Tosca. As the firing squad appears, the diva coaches Cavaradossi on how to fake his death convincingly. The soldiers fire and depart. Tosca urges Cavaradossi to hurry, but when he fails to move, she discovers that Scarpia’s treachery has transcended the grave: the bullets were real. When Spoletta rushes in to arrest Tosca for Scarpia’s murder, she cries to Scarpia to meet her before God, then leaps to her death.
--Paraphrased from Opera News |
