Political unrest, torture and ruthless power play. Art is gagged – as is love. This is the brutal world we encounter in Puccini’s dramatic opera Tosca.

Singer Floria Tosca and the rebellious artist Mario Cavaradossi are lovers. Both fall victim to the city’s authorities when the Chief of Police Scarpia endeavours to quiet the revolutionary voices of the time. He imprisons and tortures Tosca’s lover. Scarpia’s sadism goes hand in hand with his erotic appetite: The price to release Cavaradossi is Tosca herself.  

Scarpia’s dark disharmony stands in stark contrast to the beautiful arias and duets of the pair of lovers, such as Cavaradossi’s famous romantic aria ‘E lucevan le stelle’ and Tosca’s life creed ‘Vissi d’art’: I lived for art. In this performance, the role of Tosca is played by leading Norwegian sopranos Marita Sølberg and Elisabeth Teige. 

Director Calixto Bieito portrays the intense and intimate interaction between these three characters, in addition to the brutal reality that the opera actually depicts. In this society, there is only room for those who generate a profit – art has no raison d’être. 

Tosca premiered in Rome in 1900 and the story is set during Napoleon’s siege of Italy a hundred years earlier. But the theme is both immediate and timeless all the same. Scarpias can be found everywhere in the form of persons of power with a seemingly friendly demeanour – but that friendliness is only a means to gain control and take the upper hand.