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Class 9: The Puccini Persuasion A. Sant’Andrea della Valle 1. Title Slide 1 (San Francisco Opera) I thought “The Power of Puccini” and advertised “The Impact of Puccini,” but have come to realize that both titles are wrong. For all his melodrama, Puccini does not hit you over the head; he sucks you in. Even those of us who steel ourselves to resist get inevitably drawn into his web; tears come to the eyes; we are lost. So “The Puccini Persuasion.” 2. Puccini posters Once more, I shall devote this class to a single opera, Tosca (1900), the third great success of Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), after Manon Lescaut and La Bohème. I have played parts of it before in other classes, I know, but then I have played a lot of Puccini, and could hardly leave him out on those grounds. My main focus, however, is going to be on the third act, which I have hardly touched before but shall play complete in our second hour. In this first act, I will offer three excerpts from Act I, only one of which I have shown before, and two from Act II, which are justifiably familiar. 3. The Roman settings of Tosca By the time Puccini was writing, Italian opera had been taken over by the verismo, or ultra- realist movement, launched by Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in 1890. I will point out some musical fingerprints as we go, but Puccini was not in every respect a verismo composer; this opera, at least, is certainly not about common people. But he certainly follows the verismo prescription for violent action; with torture, murder, execution, and near-rape, this is not PG-13 material. And he—or rather the writer Victorien Sardou (1831–1908), on whose play the opera is based—was fanatical about accuracy of detail. The setting is Rome in June 1800, a police state under Neapolitan rule. The three acts, morning, evening, and the following dawn, are set in three real Roman landmarks: the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese, and the Castel Sant’Angelo. Furthermore, I am going to use a 1992 film by the director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, who films each scene in the actual location and exact time of day specified in the score. 4. Tosca scene breakdown Here is a rough breakdown of the action. In Act I, I will start with the tenor aria “Recondita armonia,” sung by the painter and revolutionary Mario Cavaradossi, and then skip ahead about two minutes to the love scene between him and the opera singer Floria Tosca. I then cut to the end, for the aria by the corrupt police chief, the Baron Scarpia, who sings of his lust while the church is filling for a service; this I have certainly shown before. The main thing I need to play — 1 — from Act II is Tosca’s murder of Scarpia at the end of it, but if time I’ll also throw in her aria, “Vissi d’arte.” Act III will be complete. 5. Act I title 6. Plácido Domingo as Mario Cavaradossi I won’t say too much about the aria, since I just want you to get the general style into your head. Cavaradossi is comparing the unknown blonde worshipper he has been using as a model for Mary Magdalene against the dark beauty of his own lover, Tosca. You will hear a theme that will be associated with their love. But most interesting to me is the fact that this aria, which is always performed in concert by the tenor alone, is in fact a scene involving the Sacristan as well. You can hear his muttered complaints between Cavaradossi’s lines. More wonderfully, the orchestra goes on playing almost the whole aria again as a background for the Sacristan after the tenor has finished. Puccini has a special genius for codas, almost never leaving a piece high and dry after the climax has passed. I’ll play first the love theme, and then the whole aria. 7. Cavaradossi’s love theme 8. Puccini: Tosca, Act I. “Recondita armonia” 9. Catherine Malfitano as Tosca I have to skip the short scene in which Cavaradossi helps an escaped political prisoner who has taken refuge in the church, though it is the start of the political plot that will result in his own arrest and execution. I’ll pick it up at the entrance of Tosca. 10. — the above, with duet breakdown 11. — the above, with musical examples Long ago, when I could not afford complete operas, I bought this scene on a disk with Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano entitled “Great Love Duets.” But the strange thing is how seldom they actually sing together. Much of the scene, as you will see, is more or less recitative in which Tosca expresses her jealousy of the woman whom Cavaradossi painted as the Magdalene. There are, however four distinct sections where the composer takes control of the clock; I have recorded them on a short video: 1. The opening, in which the lovers are still exchanging dialogue, but the orchestra maintains a continuous flow, developing the pure tune for flutes and harps that is always associated with Tosca, and will become the basis for her Act II aria. 2. Her arietta, “Non la sospiri la nostra casetta,” in which Tosca cajoles Cavaradossi into a date at her country cottage, not understanding his hesitation, since he has told Angelotti to hide there. Note the little cadential phrase used for punctuation between the verses. And especially the little ornament with which it begins; many of the themes we shall hear today contain similar ornaments. And note especially that though Tosca rises to a climax, it is Cavaradossi who sings it. — 2 — 3. Cavaradossi’s even shorter arietta, “Qual’occhio al mondo,” in praise of her eyes. This sounds like a new melody, but it is really her tune again, sung in a different rhythm. I’ll demonstrate. 4. Another long lyrical passage for the orchestra, picking up on that Love Theme from Cavaradossi’s aria. The singers now sing along with the tune in phrases which eventually overlap, until finally they are singing together! 12. Puccini: Tosca, Act I. Love duet 13. Wagner and Puccini Two weeks ago, I did a class called “The Wagner Orchestra,” making the point that the orchestra in Wagner was responsible for maintaining the continuity, and was at least as important as any of the singers. Here we have Puccini apparently doing the same thing—and there is no doubt he was influenced by Wagner—but what is the difference between them? Wagner’s orchestra always remains instrumental, but Puccini’s sings songs. In scenes like the one we’ve just heard, he gives the orchestra long melodies that could as easily be sung. This enables him to keep the voices more natural, until finally they pick up the tune too and blaze out. He is a more vocal composer than Wagner, because the singing quality starts with the orchestra. Many, many of his arias begin with the singer almost in monotone, only picking up the melody at the end. We will hear one of these from Cavaradossi in Act III, but there is a striking example in the last minutes of this act, as Scarpia sets his sights on Tosca. 14. Ruggero Raimondi as Scarpia Entering the church in pursuit of Angelotti, Scarpia finds evidence that he has been there, and suspects Cavaradossi of having helped him. By making Tosca believe that her lover is betraying her with the blonde woman in the picture, he learns about their little love nest. Tosca leaves, distraught. Ordering his henchmen to follow her, Scarpia rejoices in anticipation of taking Tosca and arresting her lover both on the same night, as the church fills for a solemn Te Deum. 15. Scarpia aria demo 1 Musically, the entire scene is held together by two deep bell tones, B-flat and F, tolling without pause to the end of the act. Over it, the orchestra plays snatches of melody, sometimes in the key, sometimes out of it, building to the choral Te Deum. This gives the scene both scale and a sense of inevitability. Scarpia’s voice-over starts on a monotone, and for a long time you could not call this an aria. But then, as he picks up these melodic fragments and makes them his own, it absolutely is. One final point. The act ends as it had begun, with a sequence of three chords, always associated with Scarpia’s evil. A Leitmotif, if you will. I am demonstrating it from a wind- band arrangement by Johan de Meij. 16. Scarpia aria demo 2 17. Puccini: Tosca, Act I. Scarpia aria — 3 — B. Palazzo Farnese 18. Act II title In Act II, Scarpia has had Tosca brought to his rooms in the Palazzo Farnese, after her concert below. He has already arrested Cavaradossi, and is having him tortured in the room next door, so that his screams come through the walls. He makes it clear to Tosca that the price for his release will be her body. Her famous aria, “Vissi d’arte” (I have lived for art), asks God for why He repays her good works in such a way. After the first two lines of music, Puccini takes up the pure theme of her first entrance, where she came to lay flowers on the altar. It is a marvelous example of how he can lay down a melody in the orchestra that will be taken up by the voice only much later.

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