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Notes First performance:
Rome, January 14, 1900 First San Francisco Opera performance: October 2, 1923 Performance length:
Three Hours Tosca was part of San Francisco Opera's inaugural season, also the vehicle that launched the company's new home, the War Memorial Opera House, on October 15, 1932. At that time, the titular heroine was portrayed by Claudia Muzio, and Company founder Gaetano Merola conducted.
The play on which the opera is based, Victorien Sardou's La Tosca, acquired celebritystatus even before Giacomo Puccini turned it into an opera. This was mainly due to the fact that the title role was one of the great successes of legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. By today, the play practically forgotten, Tosca lives solely because of its transformation into an opera. The list of sopranos who interpreted the tempestuous diva on stage reads like a Who's Who in the opera world, including names such as Jeritza, Muzio, Caniglia, Callas, Tebaldi, Price, Milanov...
At the San Francisco Opera, Toscas have included: Claudia Muzio, Maria Jeritza, Lotte Lehmann, Stella Roman, Dorothy Kirsten, Licia Albanese, Renata Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, Marie Collier, Leonie Rysanek, Montserrat Caballé and Magda Olivero, among others.
Among the interpreters of Mario Cavaradossi were Giovanni Martinelli, Beniamino Gigli, Antonio Cortis, Charles Kullman, Jussi Bjoerling, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Jan Peerce, Mario Del Monaco, Richard Tucker, Renato Cioni, Jess Thomas, Franco Corelli, Placido Domingo, Giacomo Aragall and Luciano Pavarotti.
Some of San Francisco's Scarpias: Giuseppe De Luca, Riccardo Stracciari, Marcel Journet, Antonio Scotti, Lawrence Tibbett, Robert Weede, Leonard Warren, Giuseppe Taddei, Tito Gobbi, Ettore Bastianini, Ramon Vinay, Giorgio Tozzi and James Morris. Also, see our article ãA Portrait of Toscaä by Stephanie von Buchau. |
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