La Tosca
Encyclopedia
La Tosca is a five-act drama
by the 19th-century French
playwright Victorien Sardou
. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
in Paris
, with Sarah Bernhardt
in the title role. Despite negative reviews from the Paris critics at the opening night, it became one of Sardou's most successful plays and was toured by Bernhardt throughout the world in the years following its premiere. The play itself is no longer performed, but its operatic adaptation, Giacomo Puccini
's Tosca
, has achieved enduring popularity. There have been several other adaptations of the play including two for the Japanese theatre and an English burlesque, Tra-La-La Tosca (all of which premiered in the 1890s) as well as several film versions.
La Tosca is set in Rome
on 17 June 1800 following the French victory in the Battle of Marengo. The action takes place over an eighteen-hour period, ending at dawn on 18 June 1800. Its melodrama
tic plot centers on Floria Tosca, a celebrated opera singer; her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, an artist and Bonapartist
sympathiser; and Baron Scarpia, Rome's ruthless Regent of Police. By the end of the play, all three are dead. Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi and sentences him to death in the Castel Sant'Angelo
. He then offers to spare her lover if Tosca will sleep with him. She appears to acquiesce, but as soon as Scarpia gives the order for the firing squad to use blanks, she stabs him to death. On discovering that Cavaradossi's execution had in fact been a real one, Tosca commits suicide by throwing herself from the castle's parapets.
's grandfather had served as a surgeon with Napoleon's army in Italy, and Sardou retained a life-long interest in the French Revolution
and the French Revolutionary Wars
. In addition to La Tosca, six of his other plays were set against the events of those times: Monsieur Garat (1860), Les Merveilleuses (1873), Thermidor
(1891), Madame Sans-Gêne (1893), Robespierre (1899), and Pamela (1898). He was known for the historical research which he used to inform his plays and had a private research library of over 80,000 books including Piranesi
's etchings of late 18th century Rome, where La Tosca is set.
Sardou wrote La Tosca specifically for Sarah Bernhardt
. She was in her mid-40s by then and France's leading actress. In 1883, she had also taken over the lease on the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
, where La Tosca was to premiere. It was the third play which Sardou had written for her. Both their first collboration, Féodora (1882), and their second, Théodora (1884), had been highly successful. Pierre Berton, who played Baron Scarpia, had been Bernhardt's on and off lover for many years and a frequent stage partner. The elaborate sets for the production were made by a team of designers and painters who had worked with Sardou before: Auguste Rubé, Philippe Chaperon, Marcel Jambon, Enrico Robecchi, Alfred Lemeunier, and Amable Petit. The costumes were designed by Théophile Thomas, who also designed Sarah Bernhardt's costumes for Hugo
's Ruy Blas
, Sardou's Cléopâtre and Théodora, and Barbier
's Jeanne d'Arc.
The period leading up to the premiere was not without problems. As had happened before, once word got out of a new Sardou play, another author would accuse him of plagiarism. In the 1882 caricature of Sardou (left), one of the signs on the wall states, ("Ideas of others") and another, ("Author's rights"). This time Ernest Daudet (a brother of Alphonse Daudet
) made the accusation, claiming that four years earlier, he and Gilbert-Augustin Thierry had written a play, Saint Aubin, which takes place in Paris on the day after the Battle of Marengo (roughly the same time-setting as La Tosca) and whose heroine (like Tosca) is a celebrated opera singer. He also claimed that he had read the play to Sarah Bernhardt and Félix Duquesnel, the director of the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. Nevertheless, he said he would "graciously permit" Sardou's play to go ahead, and had brought up the issue solely to avoid being accused of plagiarism should Saint-Auban ever be produced. Sardou, in turn, issued a robust denial in the French papers. As the play neared its premiere, Bernhardt discovered to her fury that Sardou had sold the rights for the first American production of the play to the actress Fanny Davenport
and threatened to walk out. Bernhardt was eventually pacified and rehearsals continued.
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin was packed for the opening night on 24 November 1887, although many in the audience already knew the ending before the curtain went up. While journalists were usually invited to dress-rehearsals, they were expected not to publish details of the play before the premiere. However, the Parisian journal, Gil Blas
, had published a complete description of the plot on the morning of 24 November. (Following the premiere, Sardou brought a successful suit for damages against the paper.) At the end of the performance, Pierre Berton (Scarpia) came on stage for the customary presentation of the author to the audience. As he began his introduction, a large part of the audience interrupted him shouting, "Bernhardt, Bernhardt!" After three failed attempts, he went backstage and asked Bernhardt to come out. She refused to do so until Sardou had been introduced. Berton finally succeeded, after which Bernhardt appeared to thunderous applause and cries of "Vive Sarah!"
; Prince Diego Naselli, the Governor of Rome; and the composer, Giovanni Paisiello
. However, their treatment in the play is not always historically accurate. On the day the play takes place, Queen Maria Carolina was actually on her way to Austria and staying in Livorno
, not Rome. Paisiello was a Neapolitan court composer, but at the time of the play he was under suspicion for anti-Royalist sympathies, making him a highly unlikely candidate for Maria Carolina's gathering in Act 2. According to Deborah Burton
, another minor character, Princesse Orlonia, is probably based on Princess Torlonia. Although their names and backgrounds contain historical allusions, the four main protagonists, Cesare Angelotti, Mario Cavaradossi, Floria Tosca, and Baron Scarpia are fictional. Their backgrounds are revealed in the conversations between Angelotti and Cavaradossi in Acts 1 and 3.
Cesare Angelotti had been a wealthy landowner in Naples
and defender of the short-lived Neapolitan Republic. When it fell to the British forces and Ferdinand IV
was returned as ruler, he fled to Rome where he became one of the Consuls of the equally short lived Roman Republic
. He is a wanted man, not only for his revolutionary activities but also for a youthful dalliance in London where he had an eight-day liaison with Emma Hamilton. She had been a prostitute in those days going by the name of Emma Lyon, but by the time of the play she had become the wife of the British Envoy to Naples, William Hamilton
, and was a favourite of Queen Maria Carolina. Determined to avoid a scandal, the Queen demanded that he be returned to Naples and hung. He was languishing in Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo, when his sister Giulia, the Marquise Attavanti, helped him to escape. According to historian Susan Vandiver Nicassio, Angelotti was partly based on Liborio Angelucci who had briefly been a Consul of the Roman Republic, although the resemblance in terms of their life histories ends there. Another influence on the choice of surname may have been Nicola Antonio Angeletti (1791–1870), a prominent Italian revolutionary and member of the Carbonari
.
Mario Cavaradossi is descended from an old Roman family but was born in France where his father had lived most of his life. The family still had a palazzo on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome and once owned the country villa which Cavaradossi now rents. His father had strong ties with Diderot and d'Alembert, and his mother was a grand-niece of the French philosopher Helvétius. Cavaradossi studied art in Paris with Jacques-Louis David
and lived in David's atelier during the French Revolution. When he visited Rome in 1800 to settle his father's estate, he met and fell in love with the celebrated opera singer, Floria Tosca, and decided to prolong his stay. He soon gained a reputation as a free-thinker and Bonapartist
. Even his mustache was suspect. Tosca's confessor
told her it marked him as a revolutionary. To deflect these suspicions, he offered to do a painting in the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
for free. Nicassio has speculated that one of the influences on Sardou's choice of name was the extremely similar name Caravadossi, a noble Italian family from Nice
, the birthplace of Garibaldi, and at several points in its history under Italian control. One of the Caravadossi descendants fought in the 19th century Italian Wars of Independence.
Floria Tosca is an orphan from Verona
, where she had been found as a child, roaming the hillsides and herding sheep. The Benedictine monks
took her in and educated her. The convent organist gave her singing lessons, and by the time she was sixteen, her church performances had made her a local celebrity. The Venetian composer Domenico Cimarosa
went to hear her and wanted her to go on stage. The monks opposed this, but after she was presented to the Pope, he too declared that she should become an opera singer. Four years later she made her debut in the title role of Paisiello's Nina and went on to sing at La Scala
, La Fenice
, and the Teatro San Carlo to great acclaim. When Cavaradossi met her she was singing at the Teatro Argentina
in Rome. As soon as her engagement at the theatre was over, she and Cavaradossi planned to leave for Venice where she had a contract to sing at La Fenice. Sardou took a long time to decide on her name and may have finally been influenced by Saint Tosca who is particularly revered in Verona. The 8th century church dedicated to her there is one of the oldest in the Veneto
region.
Baron Vitellio Scarpia is from Sicily
where he was known for his ruthless law enforcement. When Naples took control of Rome in 1799, he was appointed the city's Regent of Police, and quickly gained a reputation for the cruelty and licentiousness that lay beneath his seemingly courteous exterior. Angelotti characterises him as a religious hypocrite and an "impure satyr
" from whom no woman is safe. Before Scarpia set his sights on Floria Tosca, he had tried to force himself on Angelotti's sister, who fled from him in terror. According to Nicassio, Sardou may have chosen his name for its similarity to "Sciarpa", the nickname of Gherardo Curci, a bandit who led irregular troops
fighting on behalf of the monarchy in Naples and was made a baron by Ferdinand IV in 1800.
, the establishment of the Roman Republic
, and its subsequent fall in 1799 when the French withdrew from Rome. Following the French withdrawal, Rome was controlled by the Kingdom of Naples
, supported by the British and Austrians. However, the fighting continued elsewhere in Italy. The French troops had been defeated by the Austrians at the Siege of Genoa
on 4 June 1800. Then on 14 June 1800, three days before the play begins, Napoleon's troops fought the Austrian forces at the Battle of Marengo. Although out-numbered, the French were ultimately victorious, despite early reports to the contrary. News of the surprise victory reached Rome on 17 June, the time setting for the play.
in Rome on the afternoon of 17 June 1800
Gennarino (Cavaradossi's manservant) and Eusèbe (the sacristan
) discuss Cavaradossi's relationship with Tosca, his Republican and Bonapartist sympathies, and the apparent defeat of the French army at Marengo. Cavaradossi arrives to work on his painting of Mary Magdalen. When Gennarino and Eusèbe leave, Angelotti, a Republican fugitive who has escaped from the Castel Sant'Angelo
emerges from his hiding place in his family's chapel. His sister, the Marquise Attavanti, had visited the day before to leave him supplies and women's clothes to disguise himself, including a fan to hide his face. Cavaradossi recalls seeing a beautiful blond woman in the church the previous day and tells how she inspired his painting. Tosca arrives and Angelotti quickly returns to his hiding place. Tosca, who is dark-haired, becomes jealous when she sees Cavaradossi's painting of a blonde woman, but he reassures her of his love. After she departs, Cavaradossi and Angelotti quickly leave for Cavaradossi's country villa. Baron Scarpia and his police enter the church searching for Angelotti. Scarpia finds the fan left by the Marquise Attavanti and keeps it. Worshippers arrive for the Te Deum
which has been ordered to give thanks for the French defeat.
At the gambling tables, Vicomte de Trévilhac, Capréola, Trevulce and the Marquis Attavanti (all supporters of the Kingdom of Naples), discuss the French defeat at Genoa
earlier that month, their apparent defeat at Marengo, and the disappearance of Angelotti and Cavaradossi. Princesse Orlonia and other ladies of the court join them. All discuss the cantata
by Paisiello
which Tosca will sing later that evening as part of the victory celebrations. Baron Scarpia arrives and there is further discussion of Angelotti's escape, cut short by the arrival of Tosca. Queen Marie Caroline enters for the performance of the cantata accompanied by Paisiello, Prince Diego Naselli, courtiers, musicians, Austrian army officers, and monsignor
s. She reiterates her demand that Scarpia capture Angelotti and have him hanged. Scarpia must now find the fugitive's hiding place as quickly as possible. Hoping to provoke Tosca into leading him to Cavaradossi and Angelotti, he takes her aside and shows her the Marquise Attavanti's fan, intimating that she and Cavaradossi are lovers. Tosca is overcome with jealousy. As the cantata performance is about to begin, couriers arrive with a letter announcing that the French had been victorious at the Battle of Marengo after all. The Queen faints. Tosca throws the pages of her score into the air and rushes out with her maid. Scarpia orders his men to follow her carriage.
Cavaradossi tells Angelotti of a chamber in an ancient Roman well on the property where he can hide until he makes his escape. It had been used by one of Cavaradossi's ancestors when he fled Rome after stabbing a Medici
. Tosca arrives to confront her lover about the fan Scarpia had shown her. Cavaradossi and Angelotti explain everything and she realizes with horror that she has been duped into leading Scarpia to them. On hearing the arrival of Scarpia and his men, Angelotti seeks refuge in the well. Scarpia demands to know where Angelotti is hidden. When Tosca and Cavardossi refuse to tell, Cavaradossi is taken off to be interrogated by the Procureur and tortured by Scarpia's assistant if he refuses to answer. Scarpia describes the torture device in great detail to Tosca, who is then made to listen to her lover's screams. Unable to bear it any longer, she reveals the hiding place, much to Cavaradossi's fury. Rather than be captured, Angelotti takes poison concealed in his ring
. Scarpia orders his men to take Cavaradossi to the Castel Sant'Angelo for execution and orders Tosca to be brought there as well.
in the hours of darkness before the dawn of 18 June 1800
Scarpia is eating supper in a room lit only by two candles and a candelabra on his table. There is a prayer stool and crucifix in an alcove near his bed. He orders Tosca, who has been locked in another room of the castle, to be brought to him. When she arrives, he tells her that Cavardossi is to be hung at dawn. He also tells her of his intense attraction to her and offers to spare Cavaradossi if she agrees to sleep with him. Tosca calls him a wild animal and repels his advances in disgust which only serves to increase his desire. Scarpia then takes her to the window and shows her the scaffold
awaiting her lover. Tosca finally says that she will agree to his terms, but only after she has proof that Cavaradossi will be spared. Scarpia calls in Spoletta and in front of Tosca instructs him to stage a mock execution by firing squad with blanks in the riflemen's guns. After Spoletta leaves, Tosca demands that Scarpia also give her a document granting safe conduct out of the Roman States. As soon as he signs the document and starts to kiss her, she grabs a knife from the supper table and stabs Scarpia to death. Tosca removes the safe conduct from his hand and starts to leave, but then turns back. She places the two lighted candles on each side of Scarpia's body and puts the crucifix on his chest before quietly slipping out of the room.
Spoletta and his men awaken Cavaradossi in the chapel where he is being held to tell him that he has a visitor. Tosca arrives and rushes into her lover's arms. She begs his forgiveness for having revealed Angelotti's hiding place, and he in turn asks forgiveness for his anger at the time. She explains that the execution will only be a mock one and they will be able to escape from Rome. Spoletta confirms this and leaves to prepare the firing squad. Alone with Cavaradossi, Tosca tells him that she has killed Scarpia. Spoletta returns to take Cavaradossi to the platform where the firing squad awaits and tells Tosca to remain behind. After a few minutes, Tosca goes out onto the platform and sees Cavaradossi lying on the ground. She turns him over and discovers that he is dead. The bullets were real. Spoletta reveals that he was in fact following Scarpia's orders which contained the coded message to shoot him "like we shot Count Palmieri". Distraught at Scarpia's betrayal, Tosca screams "And I cannot even kill him again!" At first Spoletta and Schiarrone think she has gone mad, but an officer arrives and confirms that Scarpia has been murdered. As Spoletta lunges towards her, Tosca climbs onto the castle parapets and throws herself off.
where it ran for 57 nights and starred in another major Parisian revival in 1909, six months to the day after Sardou's death.
La Tosca had its US premiere within four months of its Paris opening, performed in English translation with Fanny Davenport
in the title role and her husband, Willet Melbourne MacDowell, as Cavaradossi. The "Davenport Tosca" opened in New York City on 3 March 1888 and inaugurated the luxurious new Broadway Theatre on 41st Street. Davenport had previously bought the rights to the American premiere of Sardou's Féodora, and had made a fortune from it. She bought the rights to the American premiere of La Tosca for 100,0000 francs, before it had even premiered in Paris. As had happened at the Paris premiere, a charge of plagiarism was soon brought. Maurice Barrymore
claimed that his 1884 play, Nadjezda, had been plagiarised by Sardou and sought an injunction to stop Davenport putting on further performances of La Tosca. According to Barrymore, he had given a copy of his play to Sarah Bernhardt in 1885, and she had then given it to Sardou. In affidavit
s read out in court Bernhardt said that she had never seen the play and knew nothing about it, and Sardou said that preliminary material for the play had been in his desk for fifteen years. In fact, Nadjezdas only resemblance to La Tosca comes from the unholy bargain the heroine makes to save her husband's life, similar to that of Tosca and Baron Scarpia. As Sardou pointed out in his affidavit, this plot device is a common one and had been notably used by Shakespeare in Measure for Measure
. Davenport herself was in the courtroom on 27 April 1888 when the judge found in her favour. Following the New York run, she toured the play throughout the US with her company.
Tosca remained in Davenport's repertoire until the end of her career. After her death in 1898, her husband continued to tour the play with Blanche Walsh
in the title role. Other prominent actresses who portrayed Floria Tosca in the play's heyday were the British actresses Fanny Bernard-Beere who performed the role in English at London's Garrick Theatre
in 1889 and Ethel Irving who was still playing the role in 1920; the American actress Cora Urquhart Potter who toured the play in Australia and New Zealand; and the Italian actresses, Teresa Boetti Valvassura and Italia Vivanti (a cousin of Eleonora Duse
). After the mid 1920s, revivals of the play became increasingly sporadic. It was performed in Canada by La Comédie de Montréal in 1941 starring Sita Riddez, and an English version adapted by Norman Ginsbury was broadcast on the BBC Home Service
in 1958, but by then the play itself had completely disappeared from the standard theatrical repertoire.
calling it a "pantomime
", as did Jules Lemaître
. Jules Favre writing in Les Annales politiques et littéraires called it a "vulgar piece, without intrigue, without characters, without morals". The New York Times correspondent reported the play's resounding success with the audience, but like many commentators of the day, including Favre, largely attributed it to Sarah Bernhardt's powerful performance, noting that:
Writing from the perspective of the late 20th century, Nicassio agrees that Bernhardt's performance as a character essentially like herself, a celebrated, amorous, and temperamental diva, was undoubtedly a key factor in the play's success with the Paris audience. However, she cites other factors which also played a part: the "exotic" Italian setting with sumptuous sets and costumes, the play's anti-clerical
themes, and a plot glorifying the Bonapartists as the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution approached.
Following the London premiere in 1888, Cecil Howard wrote that the play was even more popular there than it had been in Paris. Like several critics describing the Paris premiere, he devoted a large part of his review to Bernhardt's performance, which he said held the audience "breathless and rapt", but he had little admiration for Sardou's drama:
The "unchaste" behaviour of the heroine and the violence and brutality depicted in the play, although relatively mild by modern standards, disturbed not only critics at the time, but also some play-goers. The audience's reaction to Tosca's suicide at the American premiere caused Fanny Davenport to change the ending in subsequent performances with the firing squad taking aim at Tosca while she grieves over Cavaradossi's lifeless body, an ending also used by Sarah Bernhardt when she performed the play in Fort Worth, Texas
in 1892. William Winter
went so far as to warn American women that La Tosca contained scenes which were "not only shocking to the nervous system and grossly offensive to persons of true sensibility, but which might inflict irreparable injury on persons yet unborn." Several early critics, including Arthur Bingham Walkley
and Jules Lemaître
, wrote at length on Scarpia's graphic description of Cavaradossi's torture and the sound of his off-stage screams in Act 3, which they considered both gratuitously violent and inartistic. However, this was not a view shared by Oscar Wilde
, who found the torture scene moving in its depiction of "a terrible human tragedy". George Bernard Shaw
intensely disliked all of Sardou's work, and not surprisingly characterised La Tosca, which he saw in London in 1890, as a "clumsily constructed, empty-headed turnip ghost of a cheap shocker", while presciently suggesting that it would make a good opera.
Despite the views of the critics, La Tosca proved to be phenomenally successful. It ultimately had 3000 performances in France alone, played in theatres all over the world for thirty years, and netted Sardou 500,000 franc
s. Sarah Bernhardt's costumes brought Empire silhouette
dresses back into style, and the long walking stick she carried in Act 1 became a new fashion accessory. Both a leopard in a famous New York menagerie
and an American race horse were named in honour of the play's heroine, as were numerous dishes, several of them created by the French chef, Auguste Escoffier
, a devotee of Bernhardt,
's Italian opera Tosca
which premiered in Rome on 14 January 1900 with Hariclea Darclée
in the title role and went on to successful premieres in London, New York, and Paris. The Paris premiere at the Opéra-Comique
in 1903 was performed in a French translation by Paul Ferrier
with Sardou himself taking charge of the rehearsals. Unlike Sardou's play, Puccini's opera has achieved an enduring popularity. More than 100 years after its premiere, Tosca ranks sixth in the list of most frequently performed operas worldwide, and has over 100 commercial recordings as well as several film versions (see Tosca discography
). Puccini had seen La Tosca in Italy when Bernhardt toured the play there and asked his publisher, Giulio Ricordi
, to negotiate with Sardou for the adaptation rights. Before Puccini obtained the rights, the composers Alberto Franchetti
and Giuseppe Verdi
had both expressed interest in turning La Tosca into an opera, although Verdi thought the ending had to be changed. Puccini's librettists
, Luigi Illica
and Giuseppe Giacosa
, likewise tried (unsuccessfully) to convince Sardou to accept a new ending, with Tosca going mad rather than committing suicide. The Sardou ending stayed, but Illica and Giacosa did make several significant changes to the play, primarily to tighten the action.
Earlier, La Tosca had been adapted into an English novel by Arthur D. Hall in 1888, and had two adaptations for traditional Japanese theatre, both performed in 1891. In the Japanese adaptations, the famed story-teller, Sanyutei Encho
, set the work during the period of the 1837 rebellion by Oshio Heihachiro
, while Fukuchi Genichiro
adapted the play for Kabuki theatre
. There were at least four silent film
adaptations. A hand-coloured version starring Sarah Bernhardt was made in 1906 by Le Film d'Art, a French film company run by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy
. Bernhardt was so displeased with her performance that she refused to allow its release and tried to buy up and destroy all the negatives. Le Bargy and Calmettes then re-filmed the work, this time with Cécile Sorel as Tosca, and released it in 1908. The Bernhardt version re-surfaced and was released in 1912 by Universal Pictures
. There was also a 1918 version by Paramount Pictures
with Pauline Frederick
as Tosca. Only fragments remain of the Italian film made the same year starring Francesca Bertini
. Later films tended to be adaptations of Puccini's opera rather than Sardou's play with the notable exception of Carl Koch's 1941 Italian film Tosca starring Imperio Argentina
as Tosca and Rossano Brazzi
as Cavaradossi. Jean Renoir
originally worked with Koch on the adaptation, but had to leave Italy at the outbreak of World War II. The film was released in the US in 1947 as The Story of Tosca.
Shortly after the first London performances of La Tosca, Francis Burnand
and the composer Florian Pascal wrote a musical parody of the play entitled Tra-la-la Tosca or The High-Toned Soprano and the Villain Bass. In their burlesque version, Tosca murders Scarpia in the "Cafe Romano allo Strando", stabbing him with a huge rolled-up restaurant bill and then places one of the dish covers over his face. Cavaradossi, instead, is executed by a phalanx of photographers. The show premiered at London's Royalty Theatre
in January 1890 and ran for 45 performances, with the critic Cecil Howard pronouncing it one of Burnand's finest efforts. Burnand had previously parodied Sardou's Féodora as Stage-Doora (1883) and Théodora as The O'Dora (1885), both of which ran at Toole's Theatre in London. In 2004, Lucio Dalla
composed an Italian musical
, Tosca, Amore Disperato (Tosca, Desperate Love), based largely on the structure of Puccini's opera, but with elements from Sardou's play. The setting was updated to modern times with costumes by Giorgio Armani
. Tosca, Amore Disperato continues to be performed in Italy and was broadcast on RAI
television in June 2010.
are alluded to in the opera. The gathering at the Farnese Palace in the presence of Queen Maria Carolina, Act 2 of the play, was eliminated completely. The setting of Act 2 and the events of Acts 3 and 4 in the play were then combined into the second act of the opera, which involved several significant changes.
Unlike the play, Scarpia shows Tosca the Marquise Attavanti's fan in Act 1, where Puccini's librettists contrive to have her return to the church following the departure of Angelotti and Cavaradossi. In the opera, both Cavaradossi's interrogation and torture and Scarpia's subsequent murder take place in the Farnese Palace. In the play, Cavaradossi's interrogation is set at his country house, where he was captured, while Scarpia's murder takes place at his apartment in the Castel Sant'Angelo. The news of the Austrian defeat at Marengo which formed the climax of Act 2 in La Tosca does not emerge in the opera until after Cavaradossi has been captured and tortured. Thus Scarpia is able to listen to Tosca's uninterrupted performance of the cantata (heard in a distant room of the palace).
Early audiences (especially in the United States and Britain) sometimes balked at the realism in Sardou's play, especially Cavaradossi's screams while he is being tortured off-stage. In Puccini's version, his screams are likewise heard by the audience. However his death by firing squad is even more explicit, occurring on stage in full view of the audience, rather than off stage as in the play. Tosca's final words before committing suicide in the play are addressed to Spoletta and his men. When he vows to send her to join her lover, she cries ("I am going, swine!"). In the opera, her final words are addressed to Scarpia: ("O Scarpia, [we meet] before God!"). The opera also gives Cavaradossi a soliloquy
in the final act, ("And the stars were shining"), in which he reflects on his past happiness with Tosca and his impending death. Other relatively minor changes include Puccini's addition of a singing shepherd boy as Cavaradossi awaits his execution and a change of the church in Act 1 from Sardou's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
to Puccini's Sant'Andrea della Valle
. The latter actually has a potential hiding place for Angelotti. Its Barberini
chapel incorporates a shallow chamber separated from the main part of the chapel by a grille.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
by the 19th-century French
Theatre of France
The theatre of France has a long and eventful history dating back to the Middle Ages.-Middle Ages:Discussions about the origins of non-religious theatre -- both drama and farce—in the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and...
playwright Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10e arrondissement of Paris.- History :...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, with Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
in the title role. Despite negative reviews from the Paris critics at the opening night, it became one of Sardou's most successful plays and was toured by Bernhardt throughout the world in the years following its premiere. The play itself is no longer performed, but its operatic adaptation, Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, has achieved enduring popularity. There have been several other adaptations of the play including two for the Japanese theatre and an English burlesque, Tra-La-La Tosca (all of which premiered in the 1890s) as well as several film versions.
La Tosca is set in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on 17 June 1800 following the French victory in the Battle of Marengo. The action takes place over an eighteen-hour period, ending at dawn on 18 June 1800. Its melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
tic plot centers on Floria Tosca, a celebrated opera singer; her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, an artist and Bonapartist
Bonapartist
In French political history, Bonapartism has two meanings. In a strict sense, this term refers to people who aimed to restore the French Empire under the House of Bonaparte, the Corsican family of Napoleon Bonaparte and his nephew Louis...
sympathiser; and Baron Scarpia, Rome's ruthless Regent of Police. By the end of the play, all three are dead. Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi and sentences him to death in the Castel Sant'Angelo
Castel Sant'Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
. He then offers to spare her lover if Tosca will sleep with him. She appears to acquiesce, but as soon as Scarpia gives the order for the firing squad to use blanks, she stabs him to death. On discovering that Cavaradossi's execution had in fact been a real one, Tosca commits suicide by throwing herself from the castle's parapets.
Background and premiere
Victorien SardouVictorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
's grandfather had served as a surgeon with Napoleon's army in Italy, and Sardou retained a life-long interest in the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
. In addition to La Tosca, six of his other plays were set against the events of those times: Monsieur Garat (1860), Les Merveilleuses (1873), Thermidor
Thermidor (play)
Thermidor is a four-act 1891 dramatic play by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. The play is set during the French Revolution, almost exactly 100 years prior, and is one of seven Sardou plays set in that period...
(1891), Madame Sans-Gêne (1893), Robespierre (1899), and Pamela (1898). He was known for the historical research which he used to inform his plays and had a private research library of over 80,000 books including Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" .-His Life:...
's etchings of late 18th century Rome, where La Tosca is set.
Sardou wrote La Tosca specifically for Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
. She was in her mid-40s by then and France's leading actress. In 1883, she had also taken over the lease on the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10e arrondissement of Paris.- History :...
, where La Tosca was to premiere. It was the third play which Sardou had written for her. Both their first collboration, Féodora (1882), and their second, Théodora (1884), had been highly successful. Pierre Berton, who played Baron Scarpia, had been Bernhardt's on and off lover for many years and a frequent stage partner. The elaborate sets for the production were made by a team of designers and painters who had worked with Sardou before: Auguste Rubé, Philippe Chaperon, Marcel Jambon, Enrico Robecchi, Alfred Lemeunier, and Amable Petit. The costumes were designed by Théophile Thomas, who also designed Sarah Bernhardt's costumes for Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas is a tragic drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8, 1838. Though considered by many to be Hugo’s best drama, the play initially met with only average success....
, Sardou's Cléopâtre and Théodora, and Barbier
Jules Barbier
Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré...
's Jeanne d'Arc.
The period leading up to the premiere was not without problems. As had happened before, once word got out of a new Sardou play, another author would accuse him of plagiarism. In the 1882 caricature of Sardou (left), one of the signs on the wall states, ("Ideas of others") and another, ("Author's rights"). This time Ernest Daudet (a brother of Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
) made the accusation, claiming that four years earlier, he and Gilbert-Augustin Thierry had written a play, Saint Aubin, which takes place in Paris on the day after the Battle of Marengo (roughly the same time-setting as La Tosca) and whose heroine (like Tosca) is a celebrated opera singer. He also claimed that he had read the play to Sarah Bernhardt and Félix Duquesnel, the director of the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. Nevertheless, he said he would "graciously permit" Sardou's play to go ahead, and had brought up the issue solely to avoid being accused of plagiarism should Saint-Auban ever be produced. Sardou, in turn, issued a robust denial in the French papers. As the play neared its premiere, Bernhardt discovered to her fury that Sardou had sold the rights for the first American production of the play to the actress Fanny Davenport
Fanny Davenport
Fanny Lily Gipsy Davenport was an English-American stage actress. The daughter of Edward Loomis Davenport and Fanny Vining, she was born in London, England, but was brought to America when a child and educated in the Boston public schools...
and threatened to walk out. Bernhardt was eventually pacified and rehearsals continued.
The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin was packed for the opening night on 24 November 1887, although many in the audience already knew the ending before the curtain went up. While journalists were usually invited to dress-rehearsals, they were expected not to publish details of the play before the premiere. However, the Parisian journal, Gil Blas
Gil Blas (periodical)
Gil Blas was a Parisian literary periodical founded by Augustin-Alexandre Dumont in November 1879. It was in publication until 1914...
, had published a complete description of the plot on the morning of 24 November. (Following the premiere, Sardou brought a successful suit for damages against the paper.) At the end of the performance, Pierre Berton (Scarpia) came on stage for the customary presentation of the author to the audience. As he began his introduction, a large part of the audience interrupted him shouting, "Bernhardt, Bernhardt!" After three failed attempts, he went backstage and asked Bernhardt to come out. She refused to do so until Sardou had been introduced. Berton finally succeeded, after which Bernhardt appeared to thunderous applause and cries of "Vive Sarah!"
Characters
Three minor characters in La Tosca are real historical figures: Queen Maria CarolinaMaria Carolina of Austria
Maria Carolina of Austria was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her...
; Prince Diego Naselli, the Governor of Rome; and the composer, Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and...
. However, their treatment in the play is not always historically accurate. On the day the play takes place, Queen Maria Carolina was actually on her way to Austria and staying in Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, not Rome. Paisiello was a Neapolitan court composer, but at the time of the play he was under suspicion for anti-Royalist sympathies, making him a highly unlikely candidate for Maria Carolina's gathering in Act 2. According to Deborah Burton
Deborah Burton
Deborah Burton is an American music theorist, pianist, and academic. She is particularly known for her publications on Giacomo Puccini and his works, including the 2004 book Tosca's Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural History...
, another minor character, Princesse Orlonia, is probably based on Princess Torlonia. Although their names and backgrounds contain historical allusions, the four main protagonists, Cesare Angelotti, Mario Cavaradossi, Floria Tosca, and Baron Scarpia are fictional. Their backgrounds are revealed in the conversations between Angelotti and Cavaradossi in Acts 1 and 3.
Cesare Angelotti had been a wealthy landowner in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and defender of the short-lived Neapolitan Republic. When it fell to the British forces and Ferdinand IV
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I reigned variously over Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles III of Spain by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, as King Charles III of Spain...
was returned as ruler, he fled to Rome where he became one of the Consuls of the equally short lived Roman Republic
Roman Republic (18th century)
The Roman Republic was proclaimed on February 15, 1798 after Louis Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded the city of Rome on February 10....
. He is a wanted man, not only for his revolutionary activities but also for a youthful dalliance in London where he had an eight-day liaison with Emma Hamilton. She had been a prostitute in those days going by the name of Emma Lyon, but by the time of the play she had become the wife of the British Envoy to Naples, William Hamilton
William Hamilton (diplomat)
Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...
, and was a favourite of Queen Maria Carolina. Determined to avoid a scandal, the Queen demanded that he be returned to Naples and hung. He was languishing in Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo, when his sister Giulia, the Marquise Attavanti, helped him to escape. According to historian Susan Vandiver Nicassio, Angelotti was partly based on Liborio Angelucci who had briefly been a Consul of the Roman Republic, although the resemblance in terms of their life histories ends there. Another influence on the choice of surname may have been Nicola Antonio Angeletti (1791–1870), a prominent Italian revolutionary and member of the Carbonari
Carbonari
The Carbonari were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in Spain, France, Portugal and possibly Russia. Although their goals often had a patriotic and liberal focus, they lacked a...
.
Mario Cavaradossi is descended from an old Roman family but was born in France where his father had lived most of his life. The family still had a palazzo on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome and once owned the country villa which Cavaradossi now rents. His father had strong ties with Diderot and d'Alembert, and his mother was a grand-niece of the French philosopher Helvétius. Cavaradossi studied art in Paris with Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
and lived in David's atelier during the French Revolution. When he visited Rome in 1800 to settle his father's estate, he met and fell in love with the celebrated opera singer, Floria Tosca, and decided to prolong his stay. He soon gained a reputation as a free-thinker and Bonapartist
Bonapartist
In French political history, Bonapartism has two meanings. In a strict sense, this term refers to people who aimed to restore the French Empire under the House of Bonaparte, the Corsican family of Napoleon Bonaparte and his nephew Louis...
. Even his mustache was suspect. Tosca's confessor
Confessor
-Confessor of the Faith:Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith, but not to the point of death. The term is still used in this way in the East. In Latin Christianity it has come to signify any saint, as well as those who have been declared...
told her it marked him as a revolutionary. To deflect these suspicions, he offered to do a painting in the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
The Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, built for of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill....
for free. Nicassio has speculated that one of the influences on Sardou's choice of name was the extremely similar name Caravadossi, a noble Italian family from Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, the birthplace of Garibaldi, and at several points in its history under Italian control. One of the Caravadossi descendants fought in the 19th century Italian Wars of Independence.
Floria Tosca is an orphan from Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, where she had been found as a child, roaming the hillsides and herding sheep. The Benedictine monks
Order of Saint Benedict
The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...
took her in and educated her. The convent organist gave her singing lessons, and by the time she was sixteen, her church performances had made her a local celebrity. The Venetian composer Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa
Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...
went to hear her and wanted her to go on stage. The monks opposed this, but after she was presented to the Pope, he too declared that she should become an opera singer. Four years later she made her debut in the title role of Paisiello's Nina and went on to sing at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
, and the Teatro San Carlo to great acclaim. When Cavaradossi met her she was singing at the Teatro Argentina
Teatro Argentina
The Teatro Argentina is an opera house and theatre located in the Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in Rome, Italy. It is one of the oldest theatres in Rome, and was inaugurated on January 31, 1732 with Berenice by Domenico Sarro....
in Rome. As soon as her engagement at the theatre was over, she and Cavaradossi planned to leave for Venice where she had a contract to sing at La Fenice. Sardou took a long time to decide on her name and may have finally been influenced by Saint Tosca who is particularly revered in Verona. The 8th century church dedicated to her there is one of the oldest in the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
region.
Baron Vitellio Scarpia is from Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
where he was known for his ruthless law enforcement. When Naples took control of Rome in 1799, he was appointed the city's Regent of Police, and quickly gained a reputation for the cruelty and licentiousness that lay beneath his seemingly courteous exterior. Angelotti characterises him as a religious hypocrite and an "impure satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
" from whom no woman is safe. Before Scarpia set his sights on Floria Tosca, he had tried to force himself on Angelotti's sister, who fled from him in terror. According to Nicassio, Sardou may have chosen his name for its similarity to "Sciarpa", the nickname of Gherardo Curci, a bandit who led irregular troops
Irregular military
Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used....
fighting on behalf of the monarchy in Naples and was made a baron by Ferdinand IV in 1800.
Original cast
| Character | Original cast 24 November 1887 |
|---|---|
| Floria Tosca, a celebrated opera singer | Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas... |
| Mario Cavaradossi, an artist and Tosca's lover | Camille Dumény |
| Baron Vitellio Scarpia, Rome's Regent of Police | Pierre Berton |
| Cesare Angelotti, former Consul of the Roman Republic Roman Republic (18th century) The Roman Republic was proclaimed on February 15, 1798 after Louis Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded the city of Rome on February 10.... and a fugitive |
Rosny |
| Marquis Attavanti, Neapolitan courtier and Angelotti's brother-in-law | Émile Francès |
| Eusèbe, sacristan Sacristan A sacristan is an officer who is charged with the care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents.In ancient times many duties of the sacristan were performed by the doorkeepers , later by the treasurers and mansionarii... of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale Sant'Andrea al Quirinale The Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, built for of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill.... |
Pierre Lacroix |
| Vicomte de Trévilhac, a French aristocrat in exile | Violet |
| Capréola, an aristocrat | Joliet |
| Trevulce, gentleman companion to the Marquise Giulia Attavanti | Deschamps |
| Spoletta, Captain of the riflemen | Prosper Étienne Bouyer |
| Schiarrone, a policeman | Piron |
| Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and... , the court composer |
Félicia Mallet |
| Gennarino, Cavaradossi's manservant | Suzanne Seylor (en travesti En travesti Travesti is a theatrical term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play, or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex. Some sources regard 'travesti' as an Italian term, some as French. Depending on sources, the term may be given as travesty, travesti, or en travesti... ) |
| Reine Marie Caroline Maria Carolina of Austria Maria Carolina of Austria was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her... , Queen of Naples |
Bauché |
| Princesse Orlonia, a lady at Marie Caroline's court | Marie Auge |
| Luciana, Tosca's maid | Durand |
| Ceccho, the caretaker at Cavaradossi's country villa | Gaspard |
| Diego Naselli, Prince of Aragon and Governor of Rome | Delisle |
| Huissier (usher) | Dumont |
| Colometti, Scarpia's servant | Jégu |
| Sergeant | Besson |
| Procureur fiscal (public prosecutor) | Cartereau |
Synopsis
Historical context
La Tosca is set against the background of the French Revolutionary WarsFrench Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
, the establishment of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic (18th century)
The Roman Republic was proclaimed on February 15, 1798 after Louis Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded the city of Rome on February 10....
, and its subsequent fall in 1799 when the French withdrew from Rome. Following the French withdrawal, Rome was controlled by the Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
, supported by the British and Austrians. However, the fighting continued elsewhere in Italy. The French troops had been defeated by the Austrians at the Siege of Genoa
Siege of Genoa (1800)
In the Siege of Genoa the Austrians besieged and captured Genoa but the smaller French force under André Masséna had diverted enough Austrian troops so that Napoleon could win the Battle of Marengo.-Background:...
on 4 June 1800. Then on 14 June 1800, three days before the play begins, Napoleon's troops fought the Austrian forces at the Battle of Marengo. Although out-numbered, the French were ultimately victorious, despite early reports to the contrary. News of the surprise victory reached Rome on 17 June, the time setting for the play.
Act 1
The church of Sant'Andrea al QuirinaleSant'Andrea al Quirinale
The Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, built for of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill....
in Rome on the afternoon of 17 June 1800
Gennarino (Cavaradossi's manservant) and Eusèbe (the sacristan
Sacristan
A sacristan is an officer who is charged with the care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents.In ancient times many duties of the sacristan were performed by the doorkeepers , later by the treasurers and mansionarii...
) discuss Cavaradossi's relationship with Tosca, his Republican and Bonapartist sympathies, and the apparent defeat of the French army at Marengo. Cavaradossi arrives to work on his painting of Mary Magdalen. When Gennarino and Eusèbe leave, Angelotti, a Republican fugitive who has escaped from the Castel Sant'Angelo
Castel Sant'Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
emerges from his hiding place in his family's chapel. His sister, the Marquise Attavanti, had visited the day before to leave him supplies and women's clothes to disguise himself, including a fan to hide his face. Cavaradossi recalls seeing a beautiful blond woman in the church the previous day and tells how she inspired his painting. Tosca arrives and Angelotti quickly returns to his hiding place. Tosca, who is dark-haired, becomes jealous when she sees Cavaradossi's painting of a blonde woman, but he reassures her of his love. After she departs, Cavaradossi and Angelotti quickly leave for Cavaradossi's country villa. Baron Scarpia and his police enter the church searching for Angelotti. Scarpia finds the fan left by the Marquise Attavanti and keeps it. Worshippers arrive for the Te Deum
Te Deum
The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise"....
which has been ordered to give thanks for the French defeat.
Act 2
A large chamber in the Farnese Palace on the evening of 17 June 1800At the gambling tables, Vicomte de Trévilhac, Capréola, Trevulce and the Marquis Attavanti (all supporters of the Kingdom of Naples), discuss the French defeat at Genoa
Siege of Genoa (1800)
In the Siege of Genoa the Austrians besieged and captured Genoa but the smaller French force under André Masséna had diverted enough Austrian troops so that Napoleon could win the Battle of Marengo.-Background:...
earlier that month, their apparent defeat at Marengo, and the disappearance of Angelotti and Cavaradossi. Princesse Orlonia and other ladies of the court join them. All discuss the cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
by Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello
Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and...
which Tosca will sing later that evening as part of the victory celebrations. Baron Scarpia arrives and there is further discussion of Angelotti's escape, cut short by the arrival of Tosca. Queen Marie Caroline enters for the performance of the cantata accompanied by Paisiello, Prince Diego Naselli, courtiers, musicians, Austrian army officers, and monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
s. She reiterates her demand that Scarpia capture Angelotti and have him hanged. Scarpia must now find the fugitive's hiding place as quickly as possible. Hoping to provoke Tosca into leading him to Cavaradossi and Angelotti, he takes her aside and shows her the Marquise Attavanti's fan, intimating that she and Cavaradossi are lovers. Tosca is overcome with jealousy. As the cantata performance is about to begin, couriers arrive with a letter announcing that the French had been victorious at the Battle of Marengo after all. The Queen faints. Tosca throws the pages of her score into the air and rushes out with her maid. Scarpia orders his men to follow her carriage.
Act 3
Cavaradossi's country villa on the night of 17 June 1800Cavaradossi tells Angelotti of a chamber in an ancient Roman well on the property where he can hide until he makes his escape. It had been used by one of Cavaradossi's ancestors when he fled Rome after stabbing a Medici
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
. Tosca arrives to confront her lover about the fan Scarpia had shown her. Cavaradossi and Angelotti explain everything and she realizes with horror that she has been duped into leading Scarpia to them. On hearing the arrival of Scarpia and his men, Angelotti seeks refuge in the well. Scarpia demands to know where Angelotti is hidden. When Tosca and Cavardossi refuse to tell, Cavaradossi is taken off to be interrogated by the Procureur and tortured by Scarpia's assistant if he refuses to answer. Scarpia describes the torture device in great detail to Tosca, who is then made to listen to her lover's screams. Unable to bear it any longer, she reveals the hiding place, much to Cavaradossi's fury. Rather than be captured, Angelotti takes poison concealed in his ring
Poison ring
A poison ring or pillbox ring is a type of ring with a container under the bezel or inside the bezel itself that could be used to hold poison or another substance. They became popular in Europe during the sixteenth century...
. Scarpia orders his men to take Cavaradossi to the Castel Sant'Angelo for execution and orders Tosca to be brought there as well.
Act 4
Scarpia's apartments in the Castel Sant'AngeloCastel Sant'Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
in the hours of darkness before the dawn of 18 June 1800
Scarpia is eating supper in a room lit only by two candles and a candelabra on his table. There is a prayer stool and crucifix in an alcove near his bed. He orders Tosca, who has been locked in another room of the castle, to be brought to him. When she arrives, he tells her that Cavardossi is to be hung at dawn. He also tells her of his intense attraction to her and offers to spare Cavaradossi if she agrees to sleep with him. Tosca calls him a wild animal and repels his advances in disgust which only serves to increase his desire. Scarpia then takes her to the window and shows her the scaffold
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
awaiting her lover. Tosca finally says that she will agree to his terms, but only after she has proof that Cavaradossi will be spared. Scarpia calls in Spoletta and in front of Tosca instructs him to stage a mock execution by firing squad with blanks in the riflemen's guns. After Spoletta leaves, Tosca demands that Scarpia also give her a document granting safe conduct out of the Roman States. As soon as he signs the document and starts to kiss her, she grabs a knife from the supper table and stabs Scarpia to death. Tosca removes the safe conduct from his hand and starts to leave, but then turns back. She places the two lighted candles on each side of Scarpia's body and puts the crucifix on his chest before quietly slipping out of the room.
Act 5
The chapel at the Castel Sant'Angelo and a platform on the roof of the castle at dawn on 18 June 1800Spoletta and his men awaken Cavaradossi in the chapel where he is being held to tell him that he has a visitor. Tosca arrives and rushes into her lover's arms. She begs his forgiveness for having revealed Angelotti's hiding place, and he in turn asks forgiveness for his anger at the time. She explains that the execution will only be a mock one and they will be able to escape from Rome. Spoletta confirms this and leaves to prepare the firing squad. Alone with Cavaradossi, Tosca tells him that she has killed Scarpia. Spoletta returns to take Cavaradossi to the platform where the firing squad awaits and tells Tosca to remain behind. After a few minutes, Tosca goes out onto the platform and sees Cavaradossi lying on the ground. She turns him over and discovers that he is dead. The bullets were real. Spoletta reveals that he was in fact following Scarpia's orders which contained the coded message to shoot him "like we shot Count Palmieri". Distraught at Scarpia's betrayal, Tosca screams "And I cannot even kill him again!" At first Spoletta and Schiarrone think she has gone mad, but an officer arrives and confirms that Scarpia has been murdered. As Spoletta lunges towards her, Tosca climbs onto the castle parapets and throws herself off.
Performance history
La Tosca had an opening run in Paris of 200 performances. Sarah Bernhardt, along with the original Cavaradossi (Camille Dumény) and Baron Scarpia (Pierre Berton), then starred in the London premiere in July 1888 at the Lyceum Theatre. She would continue to be closely associated with the play until well into the 20th century, touring it around the world from 1889, including performances in Egypt, Turkey, Australia and several countries in Latin America. It was during her 1905 tour to Rio de Janiero that she injured her leg jumping from the parapets in the final scene. The wound never healed properly and ultimately led to amputation of her leg ten years later. Bernhardt gave the first American performance of La Tosca in the original French at New York's Garden Theater on 5 February 1891 and took the play to many other American cities, aways in performing French, even though on some occasions, the rest of the cast were performing in English. In Paris, she had revived the play in 1899 to inaugurate the Théâtre Sarah BernhardtThéâtre de la Ville
The Théâtre de la Ville is one of the two theatres built in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann at Place du Châtelet, Paris; the other being the Théâtre du Châtelet...
where it ran for 57 nights and starred in another major Parisian revival in 1909, six months to the day after Sardou's death.
La Tosca had its US premiere within four months of its Paris opening, performed in English translation with Fanny Davenport
Fanny Davenport
Fanny Lily Gipsy Davenport was an English-American stage actress. The daughter of Edward Loomis Davenport and Fanny Vining, she was born in London, England, but was brought to America when a child and educated in the Boston public schools...
in the title role and her husband, Willet Melbourne MacDowell, as Cavaradossi. The "Davenport Tosca" opened in New York City on 3 March 1888 and inaugurated the luxurious new Broadway Theatre on 41st Street. Davenport had previously bought the rights to the American premiere of Sardou's Féodora, and had made a fortune from it. She bought the rights to the American premiere of La Tosca for 100,0000 francs, before it had even premiered in Paris. As had happened at the Paris premiere, a charge of plagiarism was soon brought. Maurice Barrymore
Maurice Barrymore
Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe —stage name Maurice Barrymore — was the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family and great-grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore.-Early life:...
claimed that his 1884 play, Nadjezda, had been plagiarised by Sardou and sought an injunction to stop Davenport putting on further performances of La Tosca. According to Barrymore, he had given a copy of his play to Sarah Bernhardt in 1885, and she had then given it to Sardou. In affidavit
Affidavit
An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...
s read out in court Bernhardt said that she had never seen the play and knew nothing about it, and Sardou said that preliminary material for the play had been in his desk for fifteen years. In fact, Nadjezdas only resemblance to La Tosca comes from the unholy bargain the heroine makes to save her husband's life, similar to that of Tosca and Baron Scarpia. As Sardou pointed out in his affidavit, this plot device is a common one and had been notably used by Shakespeare in Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
. Davenport herself was in the courtroom on 27 April 1888 when the judge found in her favour. Following the New York run, she toured the play throughout the US with her company.
Tosca remained in Davenport's repertoire until the end of her career. After her death in 1898, her husband continued to tour the play with Blanche Walsh
Blanche Walsh
Blanche Walsh was a highly regarded American stage actress who appeared in one film, Resurrection based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy and the first three reel treatment of any Tolstoy story....
in the title role. Other prominent actresses who portrayed Floria Tosca in the play's heyday were the British actresses Fanny Bernard-Beere who performed the role in English at London's Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
in 1889 and Ethel Irving who was still playing the role in 1920; the American actress Cora Urquhart Potter who toured the play in Australia and New Zealand; and the Italian actresses, Teresa Boetti Valvassura and Italia Vivanti (a cousin of Eleonora Duse
Eleonora Duse
-Life and career:Duse was born in Vigevano, Lombardy, and began acting as a child. Both her father and her grandfather were actors, and she joined the troupe at age four. Due to poverty, she initially worked continually, traveling from city to city with whichever troupe her family was currently...
). After the mid 1920s, revivals of the play became increasingly sporadic. It was performed in Canada by La Comédie de Montréal in 1941 starring Sita Riddez, and an English version adapted by Norman Ginsbury was broadcast on the BBC Home Service
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
in 1958, but by then the play itself had completely disappeared from the standard theatrical repertoire.
Reception
Considered by Jerome Hart to be the most emotional of all Sardou's plays, La Toscas critical reception was in sharp contrast to that of the opening night audience. The Parisian critics roundly attacked the play with Francisque SarceyFrancisque Sarcey
Francisque Sarcey was a French journalist and dramatic critic.He was born in Dourdan, Essonne. After some years as schoolmaster, a job for which his temperament was ill-fitted, he entered journalism in 1858...
calling it a "pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
", as did Jules Lemaître
Jules Lemaître
François Élie Jules Lemaître , was a French critic and dramatist.He was born at Vennecy . He became a professor at the university of Grenoble, but was already well known for his literary criticism, and in 1884 he resigned his position to devote his time to literature...
. Jules Favre writing in Les Annales politiques et littéraires called it a "vulgar piece, without intrigue, without characters, without morals". The New York Times correspondent reported the play's resounding success with the audience, but like many commentators of the day, including Favre, largely attributed it to Sarah Bernhardt's powerful performance, noting that:
There is not much of play, a mere outline at best, made to fit like a glove the talent and personality of Bernhardt who is all and everything, but who should or could complain? The interest never slackens; there is enough dialogue and apropos to keep both gratification and amusement entertained, and the story enobles itself magically in the hands of the greatest living actress.
Writing from the perspective of the late 20th century, Nicassio agrees that Bernhardt's performance as a character essentially like herself, a celebrated, amorous, and temperamental diva, was undoubtedly a key factor in the play's success with the Paris audience. However, she cites other factors which also played a part: the "exotic" Italian setting with sumptuous sets and costumes, the play's anti-clerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
themes, and a plot glorifying the Bonapartists as the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution approached.
Following the London premiere in 1888, Cecil Howard wrote that the play was even more popular there than it had been in Paris. Like several critics describing the Paris premiere, he devoted a large part of his review to Bernhardt's performance, which he said held the audience "breathless and rapt", but he had little admiration for Sardou's drama:
As to the play itself, I will only add that it is offensive in its morals, corrupt in its teaching, and revolting in its brutality, and yet everyone who admires acting is bound to see it.
The "unchaste" behaviour of the heroine and the violence and brutality depicted in the play, although relatively mild by modern standards, disturbed not only critics at the time, but also some play-goers. The audience's reaction to Tosca's suicide at the American premiere caused Fanny Davenport to change the ending in subsequent performances with the firing squad taking aim at Tosca while she grieves over Cavaradossi's lifeless body, an ending also used by Sarah Bernhardt when she performed the play in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
in 1892. William Winter
William Winter (author)
William Winter was an American dramatic critic and author.-Biography:Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Winter graduated from Harvard Law School in 1857...
went so far as to warn American women that La Tosca contained scenes which were "not only shocking to the nervous system and grossly offensive to persons of true sensibility, but which might inflict irreparable injury on persons yet unborn." Several early critics, including Arthur Bingham Walkley
Arthur Bingham Walkley
Arthur Bingham Walkley was an English dramatic critic, born in Bristol, and educated at Balliol and Corpus Christi colleges, Oxford. He held important positions in the British postal service, but it was by his dramatic criticism that he became known over the English-speaking world to all...
and Jules Lemaître
Jules Lemaître
François Élie Jules Lemaître , was a French critic and dramatist.He was born at Vennecy . He became a professor at the university of Grenoble, but was already well known for his literary criticism, and in 1884 he resigned his position to devote his time to literature...
, wrote at length on Scarpia's graphic description of Cavaradossi's torture and the sound of his off-stage screams in Act 3, which they considered both gratuitously violent and inartistic. However, this was not a view shared by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, who found the torture scene moving in its depiction of "a terrible human tragedy". George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
intensely disliked all of Sardou's work, and not surprisingly characterised La Tosca, which he saw in London in 1890, as a "clumsily constructed, empty-headed turnip ghost of a cheap shocker", while presciently suggesting that it would make a good opera.
Despite the views of the critics, La Tosca proved to be phenomenally successful. It ultimately had 3000 performances in France alone, played in theatres all over the world for thirty years, and netted Sardou 500,000 franc
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
s. Sarah Bernhardt's costumes brought Empire silhouette
Empire silhouette
An Empire silhouette is created by a woman wearing a high-waisted dress, gathered near or just under the bust with a long, loose skirt, which skims the body. The outline is especially flattering to pear shapes wishing to disguise the stomach area or emphasise the bust. The shape of the dress also...
dresses back into style, and the long walking stick she carried in Act 1 became a new fashion accessory. Both a leopard in a famous New York menagerie
Menagerie
A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...
and an American race horse were named in honour of the play's heroine, as were numerous dishes, several of them created by the French chef, Auguste Escoffier
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmands, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine...
, a devotee of Bernhardt,
Adaptations
The most famous adaptation of La Tosca was Giacomo PucciniGiacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Italian opera Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
which premiered in Rome on 14 January 1900 with Hariclea Darclée
Hariclea Darclée
Hariclea Darclée was a celebrated Romanian operatic soprano. She possessed an agile, powerful, and beautiful voice that was wielded with a fine technique. An extremely beautiful woman, Darclée's stage presence was as elegant and refined as her singing...
in the title role and went on to successful premieres in London, New York, and Paris. The Paris premiere at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
in 1903 was performed in a French translation by Paul Ferrier
Paul Ferrier
Paul Ferrier , French dramatist, was born at Montpellier.He had already produced several comedies when in 1873 he secured real success with two short pieces, Chez l'avocat and Les Incendies de Massoulard. Others of his numerous plays are Les Compensations ; L'Art de tramper les femmes , with M...
with Sardou himself taking charge of the rehearsals. Unlike Sardou's play, Puccini's opera has achieved an enduring popularity. More than 100 years after its premiere, Tosca ranks sixth in the list of most frequently performed operas worldwide, and has over 100 commercial recordings as well as several film versions (see Tosca discography
Tosca discography
This is a discography of Tosca, an opera by Giacomo Puccini. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. Tosca has been one of the most frequently recorded operas, dating back to a nearly complete acoustical recording in 1918....
). Puccini had seen La Tosca in Italy when Bernhardt toured the play there and asked his publisher, Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi was an Italian editor and musician.-Biography:Ricordi was born in Milan, where he also died....
, to negotiate with Sardou for the adaptation rights. Before Puccini obtained the rights, the composers Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin, a Jewish nobleman of independent means. He studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger. His first major success...
and Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
had both expressed interest in turning La Tosca into an opera, although Verdi thought the ending had to be changed. Puccini's librettists
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini , Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian composers. His most famous opera librettos are those for La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Andrea Chénier.Illica was born at...
and Giuseppe Giacosa
Giuseppe Giacosa
Giuseppe Giacosa was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist.He was born in Colleretto Parella, now Colleretto Giacosa, near Turin. His father was a magistrate. Giuseppe went to the University of Turin, studying in the University of Turin, Faculty of Law...
, likewise tried (unsuccessfully) to convince Sardou to accept a new ending, with Tosca going mad rather than committing suicide. The Sardou ending stayed, but Illica and Giacosa did make several significant changes to the play, primarily to tighten the action.
Earlier, La Tosca had been adapted into an English novel by Arthur D. Hall in 1888, and had two adaptations for traditional Japanese theatre, both performed in 1891. In the Japanese adaptations, the famed story-teller, Sanyutei Encho
Sanyutei Encho
Sanyutei Encho was a Japanese author / rakugo performer of the late Edo and early Meiji eras. Notable works include Japanese horror classics, Kaidan botan dōrō , and Kaidan Kasane ga Fuchi .-External links:* at Aozora bunko....
, set the work during the period of the 1837 rebellion by Oshio Heihachiro
Oshio Heihachiro
was a former yoriki and a Neo-Confucianism scholar of the Ōyōmei school in Osaka. He is best remembered for his fierce opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate...
, while Fukuchi Genichiro
Fukuchi Genichiro
was a Japanese critic and author, also known under the pseudonym .-Biography:Fukuchi was born in Nagasaki, Japan. He traveled Europe as a translator, and in 1874, became a main writer for the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun newspaper. In 1882, he formed the Constitutional Imperial Rule Party....
adapted the play for Kabuki theatre
Kabuki
is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...
. There were at least four silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
adaptations. A hand-coloured version starring Sarah Bernhardt was made in 1906 by Le Film d'Art, a French film company run by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy
Charles le Bargy
Charles Gustave Auguste le Bargy was a French actor and early film director.He was born at La Chapelle...
. Bernhardt was so displeased with her performance that she refused to allow its release and tried to buy up and destroy all the negatives. Le Bargy and Calmettes then re-filmed the work, this time with Cécile Sorel as Tosca, and released it in 1908. The Bernhardt version re-surfaced and was released in 1912 by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. There was also a 1918 version by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
with Pauline Frederick
Pauline Frederick
Pauline Frederick was a leading Broadway actress who later became known for her motion picture work.-Early years:...
as Tosca. Only fragments remain of the Italian film made the same year starring Francesca Bertini
Francesca Bertini
Francesca Bertini was an Italian silent film actress. She was one of the most successful silent film stars in the first quarter of the twentieth-century.-Biography:...
. Later films tended to be adaptations of Puccini's opera rather than Sardou's play with the notable exception of Carl Koch's 1941 Italian film Tosca starring Imperio Argentina
Imperio Argentina
Magdalena Nile del Río was a professional singer and movie actress who was better known as Imperio Argentina. Although born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she became a citizen of Spain....
as Tosca and Rossano Brazzi
Rossano Brazzi
-Biography:Brazzi was born in Bologna to Adelmo and Maria Brazzi. He attended San Marco University in Florence, Italy, where he was raised from the age of four...
as Cavaradossi. Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
originally worked with Koch on the adaptation, but had to leave Italy at the outbreak of World War II. The film was released in the US in 1947 as The Story of Tosca.
Shortly after the first London performances of La Tosca, Francis Burnand
Francis Burnand
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand , often credited as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and dramatist....
and the composer Florian Pascal wrote a musical parody of the play entitled Tra-la-la Tosca or The High-Toned Soprano and the Villain Bass. In their burlesque version, Tosca murders Scarpia in the "Cafe Romano allo Strando", stabbing him with a huge rolled-up restaurant bill and then places one of the dish covers over his face. Cavaradossi, instead, is executed by a phalanx of photographers. The show premiered at London's Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
in January 1890 and ran for 45 performances, with the critic Cecil Howard pronouncing it one of Burnand's finest efforts. Burnand had previously parodied Sardou's Féodora as Stage-Doora (1883) and Théodora as The O'Dora (1885), both of which ran at Toole's Theatre in London. In 2004, Lucio Dalla
Lucio Dalla
Lucio Dalla is a popular Italian singer-songwriter and musician. He also plays clarinet and keyboards.He is the composer of Caruso , which has been covered by numerous international artists...
composed an Italian musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, Tosca, Amore Disperato (Tosca, Desperate Love), based largely on the structure of Puccini's opera, but with elements from Sardou's play. The setting was updated to modern times with costumes by Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...
. Tosca, Amore Disperato continues to be performed in Italy and was broadcast on RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
television in June 2010.
Differences between Sardou's play and Puccini's opera
The number of characters is sharply reduced in the opera, and the work shortened to three acts, leaving out much of the political motivations of the protagonists. In the opera, Angelotti and Cavaradossi already know each other. In the play, they had never met before, thus allowing considerable scope to explain their histories and backgrounds to each other. The roles of Tosca's maid and Cavaradossi's two servants were eliminated as were most of the characters in Act 2, although the some of them such as the Marquis Attavanti and Queen Maria CarolinaMaria Carolina of Austria
Maria Carolina of Austria was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her...
are alluded to in the opera. The gathering at the Farnese Palace in the presence of Queen Maria Carolina, Act 2 of the play, was eliminated completely. The setting of Act 2 and the events of Acts 3 and 4 in the play were then combined into the second act of the opera, which involved several significant changes.
Unlike the play, Scarpia shows Tosca the Marquise Attavanti's fan in Act 1, where Puccini's librettists contrive to have her return to the church following the departure of Angelotti and Cavaradossi. In the opera, both Cavaradossi's interrogation and torture and Scarpia's subsequent murder take place in the Farnese Palace. In the play, Cavaradossi's interrogation is set at his country house, where he was captured, while Scarpia's murder takes place at his apartment in the Castel Sant'Angelo. The news of the Austrian defeat at Marengo which formed the climax of Act 2 in La Tosca does not emerge in the opera until after Cavaradossi has been captured and tortured. Thus Scarpia is able to listen to Tosca's uninterrupted performance of the cantata (heard in a distant room of the palace).
Early audiences (especially in the United States and Britain) sometimes balked at the realism in Sardou's play, especially Cavaradossi's screams while he is being tortured off-stage. In Puccini's version, his screams are likewise heard by the audience. However his death by firing squad is even more explicit, occurring on stage in full view of the audience, rather than off stage as in the play. Tosca's final words before committing suicide in the play are addressed to Spoletta and his men. When he vows to send her to join her lover, she cries ("I am going, swine!"). In the opera, her final words are addressed to Scarpia: ("O Scarpia, [we meet] before God!"). The opera also gives Cavaradossi a soliloquy
Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters, and is delivered often when they are alone or think they are alone. Soliloquy is distinct from monologue and...
in the final act, ("And the stars were shining"), in which he reflects on his past happiness with Tosca and his impending death. Other relatively minor changes include Puccini's addition of a singing shepherd boy as Cavaradossi awaits his execution and a change of the church in Act 1 from Sardou's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
The Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, built for of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill....
to Puccini's Sant'Andrea della Valle
Sant'Andrea della Valle
Sant'Andrea della Valle is a basilica church in Rome, Italy, in the rione of Sant'Eustachio. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines.-Overview:...
. The latter actually has a potential hiding place for Angelotti. Its Barberini
Barberini
The Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII...
chapel incorporates a shallow chamber separated from the main part of the chapel by a grille.
Sources
- Adams, William Davenport, A Book of Burlesque, Sketches of English Stage Travestie and Parody, Henry & Co., 1891
- Amazonas, Lee "Guerilla Cinematheque Comes of Age: The Pacific Film Archive", Chronicle of the University of California, Spring 2004, pp. 147–159
- (Les) Archives théâtrales, December 1887, p. 346
- Arthur, George, Sarah Bernhardt (originally published in 1923), Read Books, 2008. ISBN 1-4437-4068-3
- Baker, Evan, "Sardou and Sardoodledom, Puccini and Tosca", Programme Notes, San Francisco OperaSan Francisco OperaSan Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2010. - Berkeley Daily Gazette, "Pauline Frederick in "La Tosca" Feature at the Strand Theater", 27 May 1918, p. 3. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- Berton, Thérèse Meilhan and Woon, Basil, Sarah Bernhardt as I knew her, Hurst & Blackett, 1923
- Burton, Deborah, "The Real Scarpia: Historical Sources for Tosca", The Opera Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1993 pp. 67–86
- Carner, Mosco, Giacomo Puccini, Tosca, Cambridge University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-521-29661-7
- Clapp, John B. and Edgett, Edwin F., Plays of the Present (originally published in 1902), Ayer Publishing, 1980. ISBN 0-405-08361-0
- Corriere della SeraCorriere della SeraThe Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
, "La Tosca visionaria e disperata di Dalla arriva al Gran Teatro", 11 December 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2010. - Crowther, Bosley, "Story of Tosca, Italian Film Dealing With Puccini Opera, Opens at Cinema Dante", New York Times, 19 December 1947. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- Durgnat, Raymond Jean Renoir, University of California Press, 1974. ISBN 0-520-02283-1
- Favre, Jules, "Causerie Théâtrale", Les Annales politiques et littéraires 4 December 1887
- Fisher, Burton, Puccini's Tosca, Opera Journeys Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-9771320-4-8
- (Il) GiornaleIl Giornaleil Giornale is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy.-History:The newspaper was planned in 1972 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleague Enzo Bettiza, after some disagreements with the new pro-left editorial line adopted by the newspaper Corriere della Sera,...
, "Tosca amore disperato Stasera su Raiuno", 3 June 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010. - Girardi, Michele (ed.), Tosca 1800 1900 2000, Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, Lucca, 2–27 February 2000. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- Hall, Arthur D., La Tosca: A novel, Rand, McNally & Company, 1888
- Hart, Jerome Alfred, Sardou and the Sardou Plays, J.B.Lippincott, 1913
- Horne, Alistair, Seven Ages of Paris, Pan Macmillan, 2003. ISBN 0-330-48864-3
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- Howard, Cecil, Dramatic Notes: A Yearbook of the Stage, Hutchinson & Co., 1891
- James, Kenneth, Escoffier: The King of Chefs, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006. ISBN 1-85285-526-6
- Joannis, Claudette, Sarah Bernhardt: Reine de l'attitude et princesse des gestes, Payot, 2000. ISBN 2-228-89357-9
- Jones, Jan, Renegades, Showmen & Angels: A Theatrical History of Fort Worth from 1873-2001, TCU Press, 2006. ISBN 0-87565-318-9
- Lemaître, Jules, "Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin: La Tosca, drame en cinq actes de M. Victorien Sardou", 28 November 1887, collected in Jules Lemaître, Impressions de théâtre (2e série), Société française d'imprimerie
- Mason, Stuart, Bibliography of Oscar Wilde (originally published in 1906), Read Books, 2008. ISBN 1-4437-2845-4
- Mastrangelo, Matilde, "The Meijin Kurabe of Sanyutei Encho: An Original Approach to Western Drama in Japan", The Japan Foundation Newsletter, XXIX/No. 2, January 2002, pp. 14–16. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
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- New York Times, "Bernhardt as La Tosca Complete Success of Her Reappearance", 12 December 1887, p. 2
- New York Times, "The New Theatre Opened", 4 March 1888, p. 5. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- New York Times, "Miss Davenport Wins; Barrymore's claim to 'La Tosca' Decided Against Him", 28 April 1888, p. 8. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- New York Times, "La Tosca Makes a Record", 5 June 1891, p. 3. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
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- Nicassio, Susan Vandiver, Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective, University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN 0-226-57972-7
- Otago Witness, "Notes by Pasquin", Issue 1880, 2 December 1887, p. 28. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- Otago Witness, "Notes by Pasquin", Issue 1885, 6 January 1888, p. 28. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
- Perusse, Lyle F., "Tosca and Piranesi", The Musical TimesThe Musical TimesThe Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...
, Vol. 122, No. 1665, November 1981, pp. 743–745 - Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, Puccini: A Biography, Northeastern University Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55553-530-5
- PunchPunch (magazine)Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
, "Sarah La Tosca", Vol. XCIV, 21 July 1888, p. 28. - Reading EagleReading EagleThe Reading Eagle is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the United States. This family-owned newspaper has a daily circulation of 64,000 and a Sunday circulation of 100,000...
, "What the Ladies are Wearing for Fall and Winter", 11 November 1888 - Richards, Jeffrey, Sir Henry Irving: A Victorian Actor and His World, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 1-85285-591-6
- Sardou, Victorien, La Tosca, drame en cinq actes, 1887, in annotated English translation by Deborah BurtonDeborah BurtonDeborah Burton is an American music theorist, pianist, and academic. She is particularly known for her publications on Giacomo Puccini and his works, including the 2004 book Tosca's Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural History...
, 2004: Act I, Act II, Act III, Act IV, Act V. Retrieved 9 July 2010. - Savran, David, Highbrow/Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the New Middle Class, University of Michigan Press, 2009. ISBN 0-472-11692-4
- Schickling, Dieter, "Fictional Reality: Musical and Literary Imagery in the Toscas of Sardou and Puccini" in Deborah Burton, Susan Vandiver Nicassio, and Agostino Ziino (eds.), Tosca's Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural History, Northeastern University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-55553-616-6
- Severa, Joan L., Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900, Kent State University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-87338-512-8
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- Walkley, Arthur Bingham, Play House Impressions (oriiginally published in 1892), BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. ISBN 1-110-57343-X
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External links
- Victorien Sardou: La Tosca – Complete play in the original French on Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- La Tosca at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions) - Giacomo Puccini: Tosca – Complete librettoLibrettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
of the opera in the original Italian and in English translation by William Beatty-Kingston at the Internet Archive