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OVERTURE OPERA GUIDES in association with We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Overture Publishing on this new series of opera guides and to build on the work English National Opera did over twenty years ago on the Calder Opera Guide Series. Masterminded by the late Nicholas John, ENO’s Literary Manager and Dramaturg for almost twenty years until his tragic early death in 1996, the original series of Opera Guides stands as a testimony to Nicholas’s remarkable energy, skills and passionate enthusiasm for the art form. As well as reworking and updating the existing titles, Overture and ENO have commissioned new titles for the series, and all of the guides will be published to coincide with repertoire being staged by the company at the London Coliseum. The first of the Overture Guides in association with ENO is published to mark a major event: a new production of Tosca in May 2010, directed by the leading American soprano Catherine Malfitano, who, in the 1980s and 1990s, made the role of Tosca her own. The production is conducted by our award-winning Music Director Edward Gardner, and the cast is led by soprano Amanda Echalaz (Tosca), Julian Gavin (Cavaradossi) and Anthony Michaels-Moore (Scarpia). We hope that these guides will prove an invaluable resource now and for years to come, and that by delving deeper into the history of an opera, the poetry of the libretto and the nuances of the score, readers’ understanding and appreciation of the opera and the art form in general will be enhanced. John Berry Artistic Director, ENO May 2010 The publisher John Calder began the Opera Guides series under the editorship of the late Nicholas John in associa- tion with English National Opera in 1980. It ran until 1994 and eventually included forty-eight titles, covering fifty-eight operas. The books in the series were intended to be companions to the works that make up the core of the operatic repertory. They contained articles, illustrations, musical examples and a complete libretto and singing translation of each opera in the series, as well as bibliographies and discographies. The aim of the present relaunched series is to make available again the guides already published in a redesigned format with new illustrations, updated reference sections and a literal trans- lation of the libretto that will enable the reader to get closer to the meaning of the original. New guides of operas not already covered will be published alongside the redesigned ones from the old series. Gary Kahn Series Editor Tosca Giacomo Puccini Overture Opera Guides Series Editor Gary Kahn Editorial Consultant Philip Reed Head of Publications, ENO OP OVERTURE OVERTURE OPERA GUIDES in association with Overture Publishing an imprint of ONEWORLD CLASSICS London House 243-253 Lower Mortlake Road Richmond Surrey TW9 2LL United Kingdom The articles by Bernard Williams, Bernard Keeffe and Stuart Woolf first published by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd in 1982. This Tosca Opera Guide first published by Overture Publishing, an imprint of Oneworld Classics Ltd, 2010. © Oneworld Classics Ltd, 2010 Libretto and translation supplied by EMI Classics and reprinted by kind permission. Cover image: T.P./Lebrecht Music & Arts Printed in United Kingdom by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall ISBN: 978-1-84749-538-9 All the material in this volume is reprinted with permission or presumed to be in the public domain. Every effort has been made to ascertain and acknowledge the copyright status, but should there have been any unwitting oversight on our part, we would be happy to rectify the error in subsequent printings. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher. Contents List of Illustrations 8 Manifest Artifice, Bernard Williams 9 The Music of Puccini’s Tosca, Bernard Keeffe 17 Historical Perspectives on Tosca, Stuart Woolf 29 Thematic Guide 37 Tosca Libretto 43 Act One 45 Act Two 93 Act Three 141 Discography 159 Tosca on DVD 161 Bibliography 163 Puccini Websites 164 Note on Contributors 165 Acknowledgements 165 List of Illustrations 1. Giacomo Puccini in 1900 (T.P./Lebrecht Music & Arts) 2. Puccini with Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica (Lebrecht Music & Arts) 3. Victorien Sardou (Eugenio Corret) 4. Cover of libretto (Biblioteca del Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini) 5. Poster for first production (Richard Bebb Collection/Lebrecht Music & Arts) 6. Hariclea Darclée (Lebrecht Music & Arts) 7. Emilio de Marchi (Richard Bebb Collection/Lebrecht Music & Arts) 8. Eugenio Giraldoni (Richard Bebb Collection/Lebrecht Music & Arts) 9. Enrico Caruso (ArenaPAL) 10. Claudia Muzio (Metropolitan Opera Archives/Lebrecht Music & Arts) 11. Geraldine Farrar (Metropolitan Opera Archives/Lebrecht Music & Arts) 12. Maria Jeritza (Metropolitan Opera Archives/Lebrecht Music & Arts) 13. Zinka Milanov and George London (Metropolitan Opera Archives) 14. Magda Olivero and Silvano Carroli (Bob Smith and Laura Garza/Dallas Opera) 15. Ljuba Welitsch and Paul Schöffler (Rudolf Pittner/Wiener Staatsoper) 16. Renata Tebaldi and Paolo Silveri (Erio Piccagliani/La Scala, Milan) 17. Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi (Donald Southern/Royal Opera House) 18. Plácido Domingo and Éva Marton (Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera) 19. Luciano Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé (Metropolitan Opera Archives) 20. Josephine Barstow and Neil Howlett (Clive Barda/ENO Archive) 21. Rosalind Plowright (Henrietta Butler/Getty Images) 22. Angela Gheorghiu and Ruggero Raimondi (Axiom Films) 23. Tosca at the Bregenz Festival (Friedrich Böhringer) 24. Amanda Echalaz (Fritz Curzon) 25. Susannah Glanville and Jeremy Peaker (Robert Workman) Thematic Guide Themes from the opera have been identified by the numbers in square brackets in the article on the music. These are also printed at corresponding points in the libretto, so that the words can be related to the musical themes. 37 Tosca Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou Libretto and English translation supplied by EMI Classics Tosca was first performed at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, on 14th January 1900. It was first performed in Britain at the Royal Opera House on 12th July 1900 and in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on 4th February 1901. THE CHARACTERS Floria Tosca a famous singer soprano Mario Cavaradossi a painter tenor Baron Scarpia Chief of Police baritone Cesare Angelotti bass Sacristan baritone Spoletta a police official tenor Sciarrone an agent bass A Jailer bass A Shepherd contralto/treble Roberti the executioner non-speaking A Cardinal, a Judge parts a Scribe, an Officer } Choirboys, citizens, acolytes, priests, police agents, guards, soldiers Rome, June 1800 ATTO PRIMO La Chiesa di Sant’Andrea della Valle. (A destra la Cappella Attavanti. A sinistra un impalcato; su di esso un gran quadro coperto da tela. Attrezzi vari da pittore. Un paniere. Entra Angelotti vestito da prigioniero, lacero, sfatto, tremante dalla paura, quasi correndo. Dà una rapida occhiata intorno.) ANGELOTTI Ah! Finalmente! Nel terror mio stolto vedea ceffi di birro in ogni volto. (Torna a guardare attentamente intorno a sé con più calma a riconoscere il luogo. Dà un sospiro di sollievo vedendo la colonna con la pila dell’acqua santa e la Madonna.) La pila… la colonna… [3] ‘A piè della Madonna’ mi scrisse mia sorella… (Vi si avvicina, cerca ai piedi della Madonna e ne ritira, con un soffocato grido di gioia, una chiave.) Ecco la chiave, ed ecco la cappella! (Con grande precauzione introduce la chiave nella serratura della Cappella Attavanti, apre la cancellata, penetra nella cappella, richiude e scompare. Il Sagrestano entra dal fondo tenendo fra le mani un mazzo di pennelli, e parlando ad alta voce come se rivolgesse la parola a qualcuno.) [4, 5] SAGRESTANO E sempre lava! Ogni pennello è sozzo peggio d’un collarin d’uno scagnozzo. Signor pittore… Tò! 44 ACT ONE The Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. (To the right, the Attavanti chapel. To the left, a painter’s scaffold with a large painting covered with a cloth. Painter’s tools. A basket. Enter Angelotti in prisoner’s clothes, dishevelled, tired, and shaking with fear, nearly running. He looks quickly about.) ANGELOTTI Ah! At last! In my stupid fear I thought I saw a policeman’s jowl in every face. (He stops to look around more attentively, calmer now that he recognizes the place. He sighs with relief as he notices the column with its basin of holy water and the Madonna.) The column… and the basin… [3] ‘At the base of the Madonna’ my sister wrote me… (He goes up to the Madonna and searches about at the base. He gives a muffled shout of joy as he picks up the key.) This is the key, and this is the chapel! (With the utmost care, he puts the key in the lock of the Attavanti chapel, opens the gate, goes in, closes the gate and disappears within. Enter the Sacristan from the rear, carrying a bunch of painter’s brushes, and muttering loudly as though he were addressing someone.) [4, 5] SACRISTAN Forever washing! And every brush is filthier than an urchin’s collar. Mister Painter… There! 45 Note on the Contributors Sir Bernard Williams, who died in 2003, was an internationally renowned moral philosopher with a lifelong love of opera. He served on the Board of ENO for over twenty years until 1985. A collection of his essays, On Opera, was published in 2006.