Name: Tosca
Start: 2024-11-26T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2024-12-13T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Royal Opera House

Admin

Royal Opera House

Stage director

Jonathan Kent

Set designer

Paul Brown

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Mark Henderson

Conductor

Eun Sun Kim

Singer

Soprano

Sonya Yoncheva

Floria Tosca

Tenor

SeokJong Baek

Mario Cavaradossi

Baritone

Bryn Terfel

Baron Scarpia

Aled Hall

Spoletta

Bass

Ossian Huskinson

Cesare Angelotti

Maurizio Muraro

The sacristan

Jamie Woollard

Sciarrone

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Others

Chorus of the Royal Opera House

Chorus master

William Spaulding

Italian

Tosca

London

United Kingdom

Main Stage

Public

Rahul Solomon

English

Approved

In her much-anticipated debut with The Royal Opera, conductor Eun Sun Kim leads Jonathan Kent’s ‘handsome period staging’ (Guardian) for the 2024/25 Season. Sonya Yoncheva makes a welcome return in the passionate title role of Puccini’s sweeping opera, alongside SeokJong Baek as Cavaradossi and Bryn Terfel as Scarpia.

FROM SARDOU'S PLAY TO PUCCINI’S OPERA 
From the early 1890s Giacomo Puccini had toyed with adapting French playwright Victorien Sardou’s gripping melodrama La Tosca into an opera, but only began serious work following the premiere of the critically acclaimed La bohème in 1896. Employing La bohème's gifted librettists Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica to streamline Sardou's complicated plot, Puccini’s Tosca premiered in 1900.   

With the city gripped by political unrest, fears of violence plagued the premiere at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi. However, Tosca opened without incident, and although unpopular with critics who disliked its violence, it became an immediate success with the public and has remained a favourite ever since. 

CHARACTER-PAINTING THROUGH MUSIC
Puccini portrays the idealism of Tosca and her lover Cavaradossi through radiant, expansive music, including Act I's duet 'Qual occhio al mondo' (What eyes of this world), Cavaradossi's ardent aria 'Recondita armonia' (Hidden harmony) and Tosca's despairing Act II prayer 'Vissi d'arte' (I lived for my art). Scarpia's music, by contrast, is dark and terrifying – from the demonic chords that open the opera to the violence of his Act II exchanges with Tosca.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble