It’s a revolution on this week’s Sunday Opera (7/4 3:00 p.m.) with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca.” The French have occupied Rome, the Pope exiled, and most of the Neopolitans, who have ruled in Rome, have fled as the opera opens. The artist Mario Cavaradossi (Jonas Kaufmann) becomes tangled in the intrigue when he helps political prisoner Angelotti (Lukas Jakobski) try to escape the corrupt chief of police, Baron Scarpia (Sir Bryn Terfel). The jealousy of singer Floria Tosca (Angela Gheorghiu), Cavaradossi’s lover, is used by the cunning Scarpia to trap both Cavaradossi and Tosca which leads to the tragic ending. Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
Since the opera airs on July 4th, we’ll spend the afternoon on a cross country tour with American composer Ferde Grofe. Host Michael Kownacky will lead the way with Grofe’s suites about Niagara Falls, the Mississippi River, The Grand Canyon (of course), and we’ll end in Hollywood. It’ll be an afternoon of great musical fireworks that won’t scare your pets.
