Before I went I knew very little about it, other than that it's by Puccini. Some extensive research told me that it is Mother's favourite. It is "set in Rome. The usual, love triangle, deceit, lies". So I was all set. Even just going into the building was totally worth the ticket price:
It is really amazingly beautiful. Any prospective visitors, let me know if you would like to go and I am sure we can sort something out. It was the third opera of my life (Porgy and Bess which I didn't really like much because I didn't understand even though they were singing in English and Carmen in German came before) and it was easily my favourite. I am not really that keen on female opera voices so I was lucky that this one only had one and she was incredible. There was lots of manly singing which was also nice.
For those of you less cultured than I, here comes a synopsis.
Act 1- A church in Rome
Angelotti is an escaped prisoner who comes to the church to hide. Mario Cavaradossi is a painter and he is in the chapel doing a painting of Mary Magdalene. The painter agrees to help Angelotti as they are old friends, so they make up a brilliant plan for him to escape dressed as a woman. Angelotti runs off to hide, and in comes Tosca. She is the lover of Cavaradossi and is a singer and has lovely clothes and looks a little bit like Catherine Tate. She is v jealous of pretty much everything and moans to her boyf because his painting is of a beautiful woman who has black eyes, and she knows it isn't her because she has black eyes. She is convinced that he is cheating on her but he isn't, she is just being silly. BOOM! A canon goes off, and this means that Angelotti's escape from the Castel Sant Angelo has been discovered. Oh no! Cavaradossi and Angelotti run off to escape. Meanwhile, there is a big celebration at the church because of something to do with Napoleon. I think he has lost a battle or something. In comes Scarpia, a policeman in one of those white old-fashioned wigs and he is looking for Angelotti, obviously. There is no sign of Angelotti, but a policeman finds a fan which was part of the disguise he was going to wear. Tosca comes looking for her lover but he isn't there. Scarpia makes her think he is off with some other woman, using the fan to play on her jealousy. Oh, and Scarpia decides he is in love with Tosca. She is cross and runs off to find Cavaradossi and the police follow because they reckon she will lead them to the prisoner.
Act 2- Scarpia's apartments (v fancy)
Scarpia is having his tea, when suddenly Cavaradossi is brought in. He has been arrested. Tosca arrives too and after they talk (sing, actually) for like a second he is taken away to be tortured. Meanwhile, Scarpia tells Tosca that if she reveals where Angelotti is hiding, her lovaaaah will be let go. She refuses but not for long because when she hears Cavaradossi scream she says "oh he is in the well in the garden." Cavaradossi is brought back into the room and is really mad when he finds out that Tosca blurted out where Angelotti was hiding. Cavaradossi is taken away. Then Scarpia has a brillo idea; if Tosca gives herself to him, Cavaradossi will be set free. She is not too keen on the idea, obviously. A soldier comes in and says "Oh no, Angelotti has hanged himself!" which makes Scarpia pretty cross, so he decides that Cavaradossi must be executed the next morning. Now, here is where he plays a trick on Tosca. He tells the soldier that the execution is to be faked like that in the case of Mr Soandso. Tosca thinks this is great and so agrees to some kind of funny business with Scarpia as long as she and her lover will be able to escape safely. He signs some important document then tries it on with Tosca. While he is getting frisky, she grabs a (remarkably blunt looking) knife from the table and stabs him like a million times. As a good Christian woman, she lights candles around him and puts a crucifix on his body before running away to tell her man of the new plan.
Act 3- Castel Sant Angelo
It is v early in the morning. Cavaradossi starts writing a letter to Tosca, I think saying how brilliant she is but she comes in and interrupts him with the brilliant news that she has killed Scarpia and actually the execution is not going to be real and that everything will be totally fine. She makes a big deal of telling him to make sure he falls convincingly, pretending that he has died from being shot. So, along come the firing squad and they shoot Cavaradossi and he falls to the floor. Tosca waits until the soldiers are gone then runs to Cavaradossi. UH OH. Turns out Scarpia was lying and that he was really shot and was dead after all! Not cool. Scarpia tricked them! Obviously Tosca is gutted. So gutted in fact that she throws herself off the top of the Castel and into the river. The End.
So, it would appear that I have made another resolution: see more operas. Oh and my other one is to use moisturiser but that will probably last about two days before I get lazy. In other news I am feeling a bit happier about Wienna, it is obviously nowhere near as bad as I was expecting it to be. I am pretty sure this is because it's a Good School week, but we shall see!
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