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Teacher Studyguidev1 By Giacomo Puccini (composer) and Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica (librettists) AN Educator’s Guide To Tosca HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Lesson Ideas Opera offers a unique teaching opportunity—to explore the arts through many different disciplines—from literature and drama, to history and music. This guide has been designed to provide teachers with sugges- DANCE-MOVEMENT- tions on how to integrate the music and historical background of PHYSICAL EDUCATION-THEATER Puccini’s Tosca into their existing curricula. For applicable National Standards, please contact the Washington National Opera’s Education While composing La Bohème, Puccini and Community Programs Department at 202.448.3466 or at educa- traveled to Florence to see the play La [email protected]. Tosca by the popular French play- wright, Victorien Sardou. The title WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET THERE? role of Tosca was performed by the celebrated actress, Sarah Bernhardt. The dress rehearsal of Tosca will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. Please Bernhardt’s interpretation of Tosca plan to arrive early, as the Opera House doors open 30 minutes prior to inspired Giacomo Puccini’s opera. the start of the performance. Latecomers will be seated only at suitable For the première of Tosca (January 14, breaks in the music—often not until intermission. 1900, Rome), Puccini carefully select- When you arrive at the Kennedy Center Opera House, please have your ed opera singers who could act and dress rehearsal passes ready. Seating at Washington National Opera’s use movement to reinforce and punc- dress rehearsals is open. Please check your ticket for the area of the tuate the action-packed plot. Opera House in which you will sit. Ushers will be available to assist you. Puccini’s Tosca uncovered the very dark side of human nature. With The estimated running time for this rehearsal of Tosca is two hours and Tosca, Puccini created an opera of 31 minutes, with two intermissions. heightened dramatic effect. Besides contracting singers who paid atten- YOUR ROLE IN THE OPERA tion to dramatic nuances, Puccini hired his publisher’s son, Tito Opera is a collaborative art. It requires the work of many people, Ricordi, for the original production of including the director, designer, singer-actors, orchestra, technicians, Tosca. Ricordi was a stage director crew, and the audience. The audience is an important part of every per- who took great care over production formance. Your role is to suspend disbelief and imagine that the story elements. He also rehearsed the per- enacted before you is really happening; to let the action and music sur- formers intensely so they would round you, and to become part of the show. To help your students feel understand the depth of their charac- comfortable with their role as operagoers, Washington National Opera ters. Musicologist Saul Lilienstein has has prepared some tips for performance etiquette. Please review “What commented that there are key Will You See?” and “What Do You Wear? And Other Stuff…” (in the moments of well-executed pan- Student Guide) with your students. By following these guidelines, every- one will have a positive experience! continued on page 2 2 Lesson Ideas, continued from page 1 tomime (communication by way of gesture and facial Around the same time as the Rose/Puccini-Ricordi expression) in the best productions of Tosca. scandal, another giant of American song was involved in a legal controversy. Composer of hits such as Ol’ • Watch films or documentaries with your students Man River and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Jerome Kern, featuring movement masters from fields as diverse as was the defendant in a case (Fred Fisher, Inc. v. athletics, dance, pantomime, and theater such as: Dillingham). The Court found that his song, Kalua, Nadia Comaneci (gymnastics); Mia Hamm (soccer); published in 1921, infringed the copyright of Alvin Ailey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Merce Dardanella (a popular song in the years 1919 and 1920 Cunningham, Martha Graham (dance); Charlie and one of Billboard’s first Number One hits). Kern’s Chaplin, Buster Keaton (pantomime); Peking fortune was not severely depleted from the outcome of (Beijing) Opera members (theater/opera); and Meryl this case (he had to pay the plaintiff $250) but his Streep (theater). Ask your students to be critical in career was blemished. their viewing and have them lead a discussion about any repeated or signature movements the above peo- In contemporary music such as hip-hop and some ple executed in the films. forms of jazz, “sampling” is common practice, where a portion (such as a melodic phrase) of a recording is • Have your students observe and write down lists of reused as an element in a new recording. Some musi- people’s everyday movements (e.g., walking to the cal groups have violated copyright law, however, by bus, running in the park, lifting groceries, dancing at sampling illegally. A few famous court cases involve a party, laughing at a joke, brushing teeth). Then, the misuse of Beatles and U2 songs, for example. encourage them to use facial expression, movement, and posture to express to their classmates where they • Ask your students to search the Internet for informa- are, who they are, and what they are feeling. tion on operas that have been the source of inspira- tion for new musical productions. Have them inves- • Challenge: Ask your students to use movement to tigate how the original musical themes have been articulate Cavaradossi’s joy when he learns from reworked to fit a more contemporary context (e.g., Tosca that he will only be subject to a mock execu- the Broadway show Rent and its link to Puccini’s La tion. Then, encourage your students to use move- Bohème; the film Carmen Jones and its relationship to ment to express the same scene with an entirely Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen; the Broadway show different vantage point-where Cavaradossi senses Kismet and its connection to the Russian composer the truth about his impending death but feigns Alexander Borodin). happiness for the sake of his love, Tosca. • Challenge: Encourage your students to research HISTORY-TECHNOLOGY online famous cases of copyright infringement as well as the concept of “fair use.” Have the students prepare Born in 1880 in Palermo, Italy, American composer and a debate (in teams) for both sides of their cases. bandleader Vincent Rose hit it big with his song (lyrics by Al Jolson), Avalon, in 1920. A year later, the estate Set in June 1800, Tosca is positioned in a time of great and the publisher of Puccini’s operas, G. Ricordi, uncertainty and corruption. The shadowy Scarpia rep- claimed that the top-of-the charts sensation was not resents the old regime in Italy that aggressively resisted Rose’s at all. G. Ricordi claimed that the catchy melody the ideals of the French Revolution and fervently was stolen or plagiarized from Puccini’s famed aria, E championed the idea that power belongs to the state. lucevan le stelle (“And the stars were shining”)— On the other hand, Cavaradosssi, a sculptor and intel- Cavaradossi’s sorrowful farewell aria to Tosca in the lectual, gives voice to the increasingly restless mass of opera’s third act! The Court found in favor of Puccini the people who resented traditional authority. and his publisher. As settlement of this copyright law- • Ask your students to investigate the suit, Puccini and Ricordi were awarded $25,000 in dam- opera’s tumultuous historical con- ages, plus all future royalties text, an era in which Napoleon to Avalon. It has been said Bonaparte was the most feared (and that Puccini purchased his in some cases, admired) person in first motorboat with some of Europe. Encourage them to com- the money he was awarded pare the Napoleonic age to the late Napoleon Bonaparte. from the copyright case. 19th to early 20th century society in Giacomo Puccini From Puccini From Puccini (Ramsden, which Puccini lived. (Ramsden, Omnibus Omnibus Press, 1996) Press, 1996) continued on page 3 3 HISTORY-TECHNOLOGY MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 Puccini’s musical choices in Tosca (themes, tonal colors, The composer Giuseppe Verdi and harmonic structure) were a departure from his ear- (1813-1901) was an integral part of lier works, Manon Lescaut and La Bohème. Rather than Giuseppe Verdi the European Romantic movement projecting a predominantly romantic sound, Tosca is and was an immensely popular figure in his lifetime. filled with sounds that startle and create relentless ten- Verdi was the most important master of Italian opera sion. From the opening sinister-sounding chords of in Puccini’s youth and early middle-age. Verdi’s La the first three bars in Act I, the audience is roused traviata (1853) introduced the wanton, consumptive immediately. The sound is very heavy. Puccini’s use of heroine to the operatic stage, foreshadowing Puccini’s the brass section and the lower instruments of the La Bohème. Interestingly enough, Verdi once remarked orchestra gives the listener an immediate sense of the that, had he been younger, he would have liked to gravity to come. The initial three-chord motif is heard compose an opera such as Tosca. throughout the opera and becomes associated with the menacing Roman chief of police, Baron Scarpia: Unlike Puccini, however, Verdi was a key individual in the Italian nationalist movement; in Verdi’s 50-year career, he offered significant musical expression to Italian nationalist hopes. He even became a member of the first Italian national parliament. Even further, Verdi’s own name became a political statement; “Viva Verdi” was a national rallying cry-an acronym of “Vittorio Emanuele Re d’Italia” (King of Italy). Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) focused on his art rather than on • Ask your students to listen closely to Tosca during the dress contemporary politics.
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