An evening at the Opera
The last live broadcast of this Season
Saturday, 24 April 2010
, 20.00
Tosca – Giacomo Puccini’s fifth opera – libretto: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, after a play by Victorien Sardou. The opera’s first performance was on January 14th 1900 in Rome. Since then, anytime and anywhere, it is a musical ‘event’ which people have been invoking for consistent financial cash-ins and legendary artistic performances, a stimulus and a guarantee of audience success in the field of lyrical theatre. It is known that Puccini composed the role of Floria Tosca for the famous Romanian soprano Haricleea Darclée; and from her, up to Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Birgit Nilsson and Leontyne Price, as well as from Lotte Lehmann and Stella Roman to Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballé, Maria Guleghina and Karita Mattila – who is holding the title role of the most recent production of Tosca at the MET! – each and every one of these prime donne (more or less lirico-spinte) have expressed their wish to interpret ‘Vissi d'arte’ or have embodied the famous and peerless Floria.
And, once more, on Saturday, April 24th, The New York Metropolitan Theatre is restaging its new production with the opera Tosca – directed by Luc Bondy and with three notable artists as the main cast: American soprano Patricia Racette (in the title role) - who performed the three main roles of Puccini’s triptych which have opened the 2009-2010 Season of live broadcasts from the MET -, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann (Mario Cavaradossi) – named ‘singer of the year 2009’ in Europe, who made his successful debut at the MET this year in La Traviata – and Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel – who is returning on the stage where he made his debut fifteen years ago in the role of one of the worst … bad boys in the repertoire of the genre – Scarpia. A new Tosca offered by the Metropolitan – which will also be the last live broadcast of this Season, so … don’t miss it!
Luminita Arvunescu
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