She believes that he has fallen in love with another woman, but actually, her suspicions are unfounded.

Her paramour is the painter Mario Cavaradossi. The heroine of the piece is the pious singer Floria Tosca. The opera is set during the Napoleonic era, a full century before Puccini’s time, and the protagonists’ problems are not average in any sense. The characters in “Tosca,” however, are not contemporary people. As scholar William Schoell writes, verismo operas strove to capture “the average contemporary man and woman and their problems.” Thus, they became interested in everyday life.

When the opera premiered in 1900, many Italian composers were tired of writing of kings and queens, gods and nymphs. Sung in Italian with projected English translation.Opera critics consider Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca,” which is now playing at the San Francisco Opera, to be the epitome of the verismo style. Star tenor Jonathan Tetelman performs as Cavaradossi, making his company debut in his signature role, and Grammy-nominated baritone Rod Gilfry returns to HGO as Scarpia.Ī co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago.Ģ Hours 31 Minutes. Soprano Tamara Wilson, an HGO Studio alumna who is now one of the most recognizable voices in opera, performs her role debut as the fiery Tosca in this riveting revival production directed by frequent HGO collaborator John Caird. Tosca tries to save Cavaradossi’s life by striking a terrible bargain with Scarpia, but he betrays her-and her revenge comes too late. To make matters worse, Scarpia decides he wants Tosca for himself, jails her lover, and threatens to kill him. But their romance is doomed by the toxic Baron Scarpia, who is on the hunt for the escaped political prisoner whom Cavaradossi is protecting.

The story is set in Rome in the early 1800s, where the singer Floria Tosca and the painter Cavaradossi are in love. A combustible mix of political crime, love, and obsession explodes in tragedy in Puccini’s masterpiece, Tosca, one of the world’s favorite operas.

Puccini opera tosca music