We’re staying in Munich for this week’s Sunday Opera (9/15 3:00 p.m.) for a performance of Puccini’s “Tosca” from Munich’s National Theatre. With a libretto by Luigi illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, this well-loved tale of political turmoil, corruption, murder, revenge, and suicide premiered in Rome in 1900.
There are three main characters in the opera. Floria Tosca (Eleonora Buratto) is a fabled singer who is in love with a painter named Mario Cavaradossi (Charles Castronovo) and is very jealous because she believes that Cavaradossi is seeing another woman whom he has used as his inspiration for the painting of Mary Magdalene on which he is working. That woman turns out to be the sister of escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti (Milan Siljianov) whom Cavaradossi helps escape from the clutches of Baron Scarpia (Ludovic Tezier), the corrupt Rome police chief.
Tosca’s jealousy betrays Cavaradossi and Angelotti leading to a confrontation with Scarpia who says he will spare the painter’s life if she becomes his mistress. This leads to the tragic ending featuring Cavaradossi’s death by firing squad and Tosca’s famous leap from the top of the Castel Sant’Angelo.
Joining our main performers are Martin Snell as the Sacristan, Tansel Akzeybek and Christian Rieger as Scarpia’s henchmen Spoletta and Sciarrone, and Pawel Horodyski as the jailer. Andrea Battistoni is the conductor leading the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
After the opera, we’ll be turning to another large piece for soloists, chorus, and orchestra in Frederick Delius’ beautifully crafted work “A Mass of Life.” Based on selections from Frederich Nietzsche’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” it features Janice Watson (soprano), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano), Andrew Kennedy (tenor), and Alan Opie (baritone) with The Bach Choir and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and is conducted by David Hill.
