“Tosca” ticks each of Conrad’s boxes, and it didn’t take a wild reinterpretation of the work to bring out the animalistic contours of Puccini’s “Tosca” characters. He calls the composer’s characters “emotional primitives, sensual savages.” Conrad identified two undercurrents that drive verismo, stating, “Realist opera is almost sadistic in its defiling of people,” and “The subject of realist opera is a pathological desire.” Realism and the Alpha Male in “Tosca”Īuthor Peter Conrad, in his book “A Song of Love and Death: The Meaning of Opera,” calls out the atavistic nature of Puccini’s realism. “Tosca” came to New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1901, and by the start of World War I in 1914, the show had visited 50 cities across the globe. When the opera moved to La Scala, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, the famed house was full for each performance, likewise when the production moved to London. While the opera received a so-so reception from critics, the public liked it and the show ran for twenty auditorium-packed performances. Puccini completed the work in 1899 and “Tosca” received its premiere in Rome at Teatro Costanzi in January 1900. Librettist Giuseppe Giacosa thought there was too much plot (and subplots) but Puccini was determined to take Victorien Sardou’s stage play, “La Tosca,” and mold it into an opera. The opera has a depth not present in the composer’s other works.

The grittiness of “ Tosca” is the apex of verismo, providing an unvarnished slice of life in an authoritarian regime at the turn of the 18th century.

Unfortunately, the crowd on hand was light for such a well-known show, but it was a Tuesday evening when typically the hardcore fans settle into seats as opposed to date-night attendees, and judging by the raucous applause, the buffs were more than pleased. Some opening nights can feel like a final dress with kinks in need of smoothing. The show had a rock star principal cast: Michael Fabiano as Cavaradossi, Aleksandra Kurzak as Floria Tosca, and Luca Salsi as Scarpia. The October 4, 2022, show was “Tosca’s” season premiere and performance number 944 of Puccini’s potboiler at the Met. There was no mistaking the grittiness of Puccini’s fast-paced thriller at the Metropolitan Opera.

Perhaps we’ve become inured to how dark and violent “Tosca” is with scenes of rape, murder, torture, and suicide. A “shabby little shocker.” That’s how musicologist Joseph Kerman described Puccini’s “Tosca.” Shabby? No.

Tosca opera wikipedia