Giacomo Puccini

Tosca

Upcoming Performances

Friday

Oct 11 at 7:30 PM

Tuesday

Nov 12 at 6:30 PM

Friday

Nov 15 at 8 PM

Tuesday

Nov 19 at 8 PM

Saturday

Nov 23 at 1 PM

Thursday

Jan 9 at 8 PM

Sunday

Jan 12 at 3 PM

Friday

Jan 17 at 8 PM

Thursday

Jan 23 at 7:30 PM

Overview

Three thrilling leading ladies trade off as the volatile diva Floria Tosca. First, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak reprises her riveting portrayal of the title role, starring alongside tenor SeokJong Baek as her revolutionary lover, Cavaradossi, and baritone George Gagnidze as the sadistic chief of police Scarpia. Later in the season, the extraordinary Lise Davidsen sings Tosca for her first time at the Met, alongside tenor Freddie De Tommaso in his eagerly anticipated company debut and powerhouse baritone Quinn Kelsey. And in the winter, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and tenor Brian Jagde reunite following their acclaimed 2021 performances of the lead pair, joining forces with legendary bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, who returns to the Met after more than a decade. Maestro Xian Zhang and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin trade off on the podium.

Please note that video cameras will be in operation during the Nov 19 and Nov 23 performances as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of cinema transmissions.

Production a gift of Jacqueline Desmarais, in memory of Paul G. Desmarais Sr; The Paiko Foundation; and Dr. Elena Prokupets, in memory of her late husband, Rudy Prokupets

The Met gratefully acknowledges the support of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation; the Gramma Fisher Foundation, Marshalltown, Iowa; and the Hermione Foundation, Laura Sloate, Trustee

Revival sponsored by Mastercard and Rolex

Languages

Languages sung in Tosca

Sung In

Italian

Titles

Title languages displayed for Tosca

Met Titles In

  • English
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Italian

Timeline

Timeline for the show, Tosca

Estimated Run Time

3 hrs 5 mins

  • House Opens

  • Act I

    50 mins

  • Intermission

    30 mins

  • Act II

    45 mins

  • Intermission

    30 mins

  • Act III

    30 mins

  • Opera Ends

Tosca

Premiere: Teatro Costanzi, Rome, 1900. Puccini’s melodrama about a volatile diva, a sadistic police chief, and an idealistic artist has offended and thrilled audiences for more than a century. Critics, for their part, have often had problems with Tosca’s rather grungy subject matter, the directness and intensity of its score, and the crowd-pleasing dramatic opportunities it provides for its lead roles. But these same aspects have made Tosca one of a handful of iconic works that seem to represent opera in the public imagination. Tosca’s popularity is further secured by a superb and exhilarating dramatic sweep, a driving score of abundant melody and theatrical shrewdness, and a career-defining title role.

Creators

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) was immensely popular in his own lifetime, and his mature works remain staples in the repertory of most of the world’s opera companies. His operas are celebrated for their mastery of detail, sensitivity to everyday subjects, copious melody, and economy of expression. Puccini’s librettists for Tosca, Giuseppe Giacosa (1847–1906) and Luigi Illica (1857–1919), also collaborated with him on his two other most enduringly successful operas, La Bohème and Madama Butterfly. Giacosa, a dramatist, was responsible for the stories, and Illica, a poet, worked primarily on the words themselves.

PRODUCTION

David McVicar

SET and COSTUME DESIGNER

John Macfarlane

LIGHTING DESIGNER

David Finn

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR

Leah Hausman

Headshot of Giacomo Puccini

COMPOSER

Giacomo Puccini

Setting

Tosca

No opera is more tied to its setting than Tosca, which takes place in Rome on the morning of June 17, 1800, through dawn the following day. The specified settings for each of the three acts—the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese, and Castel Sant’Angelo—are familiar monuments in the city and can still be visited today. While the libretto takes some liberties with the facts, historical issues form a basis for the opera: The people of Rome are awaiting news of the Battle of Marengo in northern Italy, which will decide the fate of their symbolically powerful city.

Videos

Music

The score of Tosca (if not the drama) itself is considered a prime example of the style of verismo, an elusive term usually translated as “realism.” The typical musical features of the verismo tradition are prominent in Tosca: short arias with an uninhibited flood of raw melody, ambient sounds that blur the distinctions between life and art, and the use of parlato—words spoken instead of sung—at moments of tension.

Tosca