Tosca

To recapture the escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti, Chief of Police Baron Scarpia arrests the painter Mario Cavaradossi, who was involved in the escape, and his lover, the opera diva Floria Tosca, who is also the subject of Scarpia's desire, and entangles himself with the two of them in a horrifying dance of death centred on love, jealousy, torture, cynicism, greed and blackmail, ultimately leading to death and suicide.

Giacomo Puccini's »Tosca«, first performed in Rome in 1900, is a brutal cabinet of cruelties, like a verismo film montage and grandiosely colourful, set to the most emotional music. Today, with its wealth of immortal hits such as »Vissi dʼarte« and »E lucevan le stelle«, it is considered to be one of the major works in the opera repertoire. For the Gärtnerplatz premiere, director and stage designer Stefano Poda develops his interpretation of the political thriller in a new, visually stunning production!

TOSCA programme reading sample